


Guardians of Hope. Force of a Rebellion.

by Elementalwriter



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dark, F/F, Good Parent Eda Clawthorne, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Swearing, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:15:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 77,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25588138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elementalwriter/pseuds/Elementalwriter
Summary: (takes place before Episode 17: Wing It like WItches. everything that happend after Episode 16: Enchanting Grom Fright, didn't happen in this story.)Luz had hoped that she would just be able to return home at the end of summer and see her mother again.but faith wouldn't have it that way, as Belos took full control over the Isles. forcing the citizens of the Isles to bend to his will.Knowing what she had to do, the human stayed on the Isles to fight back with the help of Eda and her friends. A rebellion was formed.before she knew it, five years had passed. andunable to return to the Human World, the now 19 year old girl has to face of against challenges which could destroy and kill everything and everyone she cares about.
Relationships: Amity Blight/Luz Noceda, Boscha/Willow (The Owl House)
Comments: 20
Kudos: 159





	1. Beatdown.

Chapter 1.

Bonesborough was calm, or at least, as calm as it could be, seeing that everything was still chaotic. Monsters through all of Bonesborough have gathered at the market to buy their needs. At first it looked normal, everyone and everything was doing their thing. But if you looked through that, you would see all of the wanted posters, all over town. Each of those posters used to say ‘Eda The Owl Lady’ but since a few years, they have said something else.

Most of those posters were to be found on the main streets, but also in little alleyways. But of course in les amounts, because nobody really goes there. So they were mostly calm.

Or so you would think, because one of the posters is suddenly effected by a breeze created by someone, wearing a cloak, running past at full speed, followed by guardsmen of the most known coven in the Boiling Isles.

“You’ll never catch me!” the person shouted, while blowing a raspberry.

“We’ll see about that criminal!” Shouted the team leader, as he drew a circle in the air which shot a blast of magical energy at the ‘criminal’ .

As the blast shot to the cloaked being, they seemed to reach for something. And right before the blast hit, a shield was suddenly put up out of nowhere.

“You need to do better than that to capture me.” The figure said with a smile. As she stopped running to face the guards head on. “You know, after all this time I really thought that you guys would finally learn you lesson that your tiny group can’t defeat me, right?!” it said wagging it’s fingers. “dis-sa-pointed.”

The guardsmen stopped as well, watching her every move.

The leader smirked. “Who says we didn’t learn from our mistakes?”

Suddenly things could be heard from the rooftops. Many footsteps could be heard. The cloaked figure looked up and saw a lot of guards on the edges of the houses, all with spells ready to fire.

“Huh,” the figure said “so you guys ‘do’ have brains.”

“We will make you eat those words, when we drag your sorry ass to jail.” The leader reacted. “EVERYONE READY!” he shouted to his men.

The figure smirked under the shadow of her cloak.

“AIM!”

One of her hands slipped to her belt.

“FIRE!”

Every guard fired at the same time, creating a lightshow which was able to be seen on the main square. A big explosion followed.

The alley was filled with smoke, nothing was able to be seen. The leader laughed. “Hahaha. There is absolutely NO way that she survived this.” He said with an smug grin. “Now we just need to wait for the smoke to clear and we can recover the body, or at least, what is left of it.”

“Are you sure about that!?” A small laugh was heard.

The leader looked around at his men. “Who said that?! Who has doubts in my masterplan?!”

“I do!” came from the cloud of smoke and dust.

He was so confused. _‘that’s impossible! She couldn’t have survived that in any sort of way!’_

But when the dust cleared up, a green energy shield could be seen at the center of their formation. And under that shield was the criminal, completely unharmed.

“But…but…HOW!!”

The figure laughed while she banished her shield. “You really thought you had me. Sorry to disappoint you.”

The leader spoke, “you really think you are that great! But your NOTHING! Absolutely NOTHING!!” he said with a deep glare. “We still have you surrounded and you’ve got nowhere to go!”

“That’s what you think.” The figure replied with a brave heart.

“We’ll see, GET HER!”

Some of the guardsmen ran at the criminal. But before any of them could reach her, she seemed to pull something from her belt, a piece of paper. The piece of paper had a mysterious symbol on it, but the cloaked figure knew exactly what it was. She smirked as she threw it on the ground.

Before the guards could do anything they were launched in the air by an explosion. Meanwhile the explosion didn’t seem to effect the caster. But what it did do was create a heavy wind, which blew the top of the cloak of the head of the figure, revealing; tan skin, dark brown hair and hazel-brown eyes, full of determination. “You are so close but yet so far.” Luz Noceda said with a grin. “when do you finally learn your lesson Rhodon? You can’t beat me and you know it.”

Leader Rhodon was pissed. “WHAT ARE YOU FOOLS DOING?!” He shouted. “KEEP ATTACKING!! TAKE HER DOWN!”

As more guards ran up to Luz she quickly grabbed another glyph, tapped it and threw it in the air, creating a small whirlwind. Some of the guards had trouble to keep moving forward while others kept coming closer and closer. “would you look at that. You guys are really going for it. But sadly I can’t let you get any closer.”

And at that, another glyph was used, but instead of causing an explosion when it hit the ground, it made giant plant vines grow, which started attacking the guards getting to close to their caster. they either got hit and knocked out, or they were grabbed and flung across the alley, or just straight into the walls.

Meanwhile, Luz was enjoying the chaos around her. She wasn’t one for extreme violence, but it was pretty funny to see the emperors guards, the guards who are always acting like they are the toughest around, getting beaten up by a plant. A magically summoned plant, but a plant nonetheless. It was also pretty funny how some of the guards tried to warn the others.

“look out behind you!”

“GREG! DUCK!”

“where!?” SMACK!

STEVE, ONE IS COMING RIGHT FOR… never mind.”

Luz was enjoying herself, that much was sure. But it started to turn really boring. Besides, she needed to be back home very soon before the seekers came out. And so she disband every spell, and picked up the glyphs which reformed. “ Alright everyone, it was fun, but I’ve got to go home. You guys know how it is: you come home late and I don’t really want to get into trouble with the rest, soooo, yeah, I going to have to wrap this up.” She said as she grabbed two more glyphs from the pouch on her belt. She then activated the first which let out a shockwave which knocked the guards against the walls, followed up by her second glyph, which shot out a wave as well, seemingly made out of lightning, and when the guards were hid they immediately went unconscious. “Easy as always.” She said as she began walking away.

Suddenly a ball of fire flew past her face, just missing it. “not. So. Fast.”

Luz turned around, and saw that Rhodon, who had called up a barrier to guard himself, was still standing. He looked at her with murder in his eyes. “You are not getting away. NOT THIS TIME!” he shouted.

Luz sighed. “You said the same thing last time, and the time before that, and the time before THAT, and… THAT DOES NOT MATTER!!” he interrupted her. “You will not escape. I’m going to bring you to the Emperor, alive or dead.” He said as he drew a spell circle.

“Keep dreaming buddy, I am not going anywhere, except to my home. And there is nothing you can do about it.” She dared him.

Rhodon smirked. “oh, can’t I?” he said as he fired the spell, a bolt of lightning right at Luz. But she anticipated this and dodged it. All those years on the run really had improved her skills. As an response, she grabbed another glyph and fired of a fireball. Rhodon dodged that and repaid the act by drawing two more circles, each firing their own projectiles, which Luz dodged. But before Luz could recover Rhodon let out a raged shout and came rushing at her for a more hands on approach.

Luz couldn’t react in time and took a big blow, which send her flying backwards. “ugh,” she groaned. “How is it possible that you can give punches like that?”

The guard laughed at that. “Kid, there is so much you don’t know about me and my fellow guards.” He smirked. “But allow me to show you.” Rhodon said as he drew a spell circle, reached in, and pulled out a big battle axe. He let out a shout as he ran at Luz, axe lifted above his head.

Luz’s eyes shrunk and she quickly pulled out two other glyphs, one she slapped on her arm and activated it, the other one she kept in her hand, which, when activated, turned into a sword. She luckily managed to block his strike.

Rhodon was shocked. “But how?!” he said, looking down at Luz. “I’m bigger and way stronger then you, how did you block me?!”

Luz smirked, as she pulled away her sword while jumping away from him. “it’s very simple actually.” She said with pride in her voice. “You see this?” she pointed at the glyph on her arm. “this glyph has the same effect as a power-glyph, you know, those glyphs used by the construction coven. Very useful, if I say so myself.”

The guard glared at her and swung his axe at her with and angry roar. Luz dodged it and answered with swinging her sword, which just missed her enemy, who immediately swung his axe down to chop her in half. Luz just managed to get out of its way, when she saw that her opponent had drawn a spell circle, which released a lightning bolt.

It was a direct hit.

“AAAAAAAAH” she screamed. She may have been hit before, but it definitely didn’t get less painful. The bolt also disabled her power-glyph. When the lightning stopped going through her body, she fell on the ground. “I hate lightning bolts. Why is it always lightning bolts?!” she muttered as she tried to get up.

“Not so fast.”

When Luz looked up at the words of the guard, she saw that he was swinging his axe again. She quickly tried to block it, but she could block all of it and still got hit. She quickly tried to crawl back, to see what the damage was. The axe made a big cut in her stomach, luckily not deep enough to hit organs, but it was still bleeding big time and hurt like hell.

“what’s wrong?” Rhodon said, mocking her, “did the big bad guard hurt you? Serves you right. You’re lucky the emperor would prefer you alive than dead.” He got an evil grin on his face. “but that doesn’t mean that I can’t hurt you some more!”

Next thing Luz knew, a heavy kick landed right in her ribcage and made her back hit one of the walls, HARD! She tried to not show weakness, to not show pain, to not give him the satisfaction of knowing that he was hurting her.

“Did you really think you could get away, after all that has happened?!” another kick. “It was only a matter of time before we would finally catch you.” Another kick. “and now, you are going to spent the rest of your life behind bars, where. You. BELONG!!” he shouted the last word as he gave her one final kick.

That broke her, it hurt so much. She had broken at least two or three ribs by now. But she was not done with him. “You are supposed to be a guard?! You’re not a guard, you’re just someone who enjoys watching other people and beings suffer!”

“guilty as charged,” he said with a proud smile. “and if you think this is the end, you are SO wrong. You see, you are just the start. The others will soon follow, and I’ll make sure that you will see them suffer.” He then leaned down to whisper in her ear. “every. Single. Day.”

Something inside of Luz snapped like a rubber band. You threaten her, that’s fine. But you don’t, DON’T, threaten the ones she cares about! Her family! And so, with some effort, she reached for her pouch, and pulled out a special glyph, a special project of hers, and slapped it on her arm.

Before Rhodon knew it, he was flung backwards. He landed in a crouch position and looked at the criminal. His eyes widened as he saw her, something was different about her, as in, WAY different. For example:

SHE WAS FLOATING!

Luz was floating in the air multiple inches of the ground, her eyes aglow, magic seemed to go through the veins of her arms, flowing with power. She then spoke, full of anger, “YOU DARE THREATEN THEM?!! IF YOU LAY ONE FINGER, OR TENTACLE OR WHATEVER ON THEM, I SWEAR THAT I WILL MAKE YOU LIFE A LIVING HELL!!!”

The guard took a step back, but still tried to put up a though front. “Do I need to afraid of THIS? A simple lightshow? You don’t scare me! What could YOU, possibly do?!”

On her face formed a dark grin. She laughed. “Well, allow me to show you.” When she suddenly drew a spell circle and unleashed a blast of energy, right at the guard. He, of course, didn’t expect this and took the blast head-on, which send him flying backwards, and into a dumpster. The bang that followed was able to be heard from a kilometer away.

“uuuuugh.” He groaned. That kid really could pack a punch, or spell in this case. He recovered and saw that Luz hadn’t moved at all. She just floated there, looking at him. “Nice try kid.” He said as he stood back up. “but if that is all you can do, then you are lost.”

Luz smirked. “that’s not all I can do,” she said as she drew another spell circle. The guard was suddenly grabbed by some force, and thrown into the air. As he reached the peak of his flight, Luz was suddenly there and drew another circle, summoning a Warhammer in the process. Rhodon gulped as he saw what was going to happen, as Luz swung down the hammer and struck him down, literally. He was send down like a rocket, until he hit the ground, creating a small crater.

As he climbed out of the crater, Luz was in front of him again. “How did you survive that?! Most beings would have been killed!”

“that’s something you will never find OUT!” he said as he quickly fired a spell at her.

Luz answered by casting a barrier to stop the spell from reaching her. “you still haven’t learned you lesson, have you?” she leaned in close. “I’m stronger then you, I’m smarter then you, I’m faster then you, you can’t catch me. Boop.” She said as she booped the nose of his mask. Luz started walking away. “better luck next time.”

Rhodon quickly got up and ran at her, but before he could reach her he was blasted back by another spell. “when do you finally realize that you’ve had you chance today. Maybe you’ll catch me tomorrow. Probably not, but hey, what can you do.” She said as she drew another circle, which summoned some heavy rope.

The rope quickly wrapped itself around the guard, restraining him in the process.

“and just to make sure that you will not do any funny business.” She drew one last circle. Suddenly the ropes weren’t ropes, but snakes, BIG snakes. “that should keep you busy.” She said as she opened her pouch and pulled something from it, a staff. The staff was completely made out of wood, and at the top of the staff, sat a manticore palisman. She was just about to go, when she saw one of the wanted posters. “hmm” she said. “looks like the bounty has gone up again. Interesting. And you guys really need to use some better photo. I mean, this one is pretty old.” She said as she took the poster of the wall. “but I’ll take this with me as a souvenir, of what happened today.” She then looked at her palisman.

“Let’s go home.” She said to the palisman, as she got on the staff and pushed off of the ground. “see you next time Rhodon!” she called out as she flew away. The last thing she heard from him that day was a angry shout. “Damn you, Guardian!!”

She snickered as she flew, messing around with Rhodon was always fun, but this time was really close. She frowned. The guards are getting stronger with each day, that could be a problem.

She suddenly hissed in pain. The effects of her wounds are coming back. “looks like it wore out already. Dang it. I hoped it would at least last until I could get to my room, apparently not.” She sighed. “I’m definitely going to get in trouble for this, *sigh* again.”

She then looked at the wanted poster and smiled. They had worked so hard for this. To most, a wanted poster is something bad, a symbol of shame. But to her and her family, it was a symbol of pride, a symbol of accomplishment.

She read the poster out loud, even though she knew what it said:

WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE,

THE GUARDIANS OF HOPE!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello,  
> so, this my first try at a fic about the Owl House, and I think I did pretty well. I will probably still update this chapter to make it a little bit longer and mayby improve the fighting scene. I don't really have a schedule for this story, sooooo, I don't really know when the next chapter is going to be out. also, I'm going to make at least five more Owl House stories.... wait, hold up *looks through ideabook* yeah, five stories. so those are coming up.
> 
> but while those are not out yet and this story isn't updated yet, go look at all of the other stories on AO3. they are amazing.
> 
> one of my favorites right now is: 'the curious curse of Luz Noceda'. I'm not saying that I don't like all of the other stories, I'm not saying that AT ALL. no, al I'm saying is that that one is one of my favorites right now. so, if you have the time, go check it out. 
> 
> mayby more recomendations next time (right now I'm watching a tv series which might interest you if you are a gamer like me :))
> 
> Gr Elementalwriter.


	2. Worrying is Caring

Chapter 2:

The sun was disappearing over the horizon in Bonesborough, everything was calming down. Beings of all kinds were returning to their homes. The town slowly became peaceful, no shouting, no fighting, nothing.

When suddenly,

A loud noise went through Bonesborough, a noise that sounded like an alarm. And by now, everyone in town knew what it meant,

The Seekers are coming.

* * *

But not everybody was home, because a few miles away from Bonesborough, a witch was flying on her staff, on her way to her family, her safe haven. This witch was none other, then the wanted criminal, Luz Noceda.

Luz was looking over the forest below her. It was one massive sea of green, and it was beautiful. She could see some Covora’s (imagine a fusion between a peacock and a eagle.) flying to their nests. Their multicolored feathers making a rainbow of colors.

She smiled. “It’s weird, even though all of this chaos, there are beings who can live happily without any pressure.” Luz then sighed “I wish I could say the same thing about me and the others.”

After a little while she landed and started walking. Creatures al around her scurried away, not knowing what her intensions were. Peace and quiet surrounded her like a cozy blanket. Nothing was trying to attack her, hunt her down, or trying to imprison her. It was a nice feeling after all that happened.

She kept walking for a about ten minutes when she suddenly stopped and looked in front of her, the weird thing was, was that all that there was open field. Nothing special about it.

But Luz knew better than that, because there was a reason why they have not been caught yet.

She quietly whispered a few words: “ _Hope for Hope, Death to the emperor. Luz Noceda.”_

At first nothing happened, when suddenly a very familiar looking door appeared in front of her, seemingly fading into existence. It was a wooden door with an big yellow eye. Luz smiled as she grabbed the doorknob, twisted it and opened the door. Light come inside the door, but she was not afraid, instead she just straight up walked in.

Next thing she knew she wasn’t in the lonely field anymore, but in what seemed to be a small town. A small town which Luz knew all too well, and so did the town know her. That showed, because when she started walking through the town, beings who lived there all greeted her, some waved, others said “hello” and “good late evening”, some kids even came running at her to ask for an autograph. That may seem weird, until you realize that Luz was actually one of the towns heroes and one of the founders of the town.

“It’s good to be back.” Luz said to herself, while she was making her way to her destination. _‘even though it hasn’t even been a day, it still feels great to arrive back at a place which actually has beings in it who appreciate you for who you are and not for what you can do.’._

A few minutes went by, when she finally arrived at her final destination. Her home and the ‘headquarters’ of the rebellion:

The Owl House.

Luz smiled as she looked at the building. At had changed over the years. It was, for example, bigger than ever. Where at first the little shack was attached to the house, was now a sort of barracks for all of the gear. That gear belonged to the people who actually lived in the Owl House. Which were Luz and her team/friends/family. And that family definitely wasn’t normal, seeing that it was made of;

Eda The Owl Lady, a cursed witch who is known to be one of the strongest witches on the Boiling Isles.

Herself, a human with who learned to use magic through glyphs.

Her buddy King, the king of demons, who was, even after all these years, still incredibly adorable.

Her friend Willow, who had some of the strongest plant related magic she has ever seen.

Her friend Augustus, aka Gus, who was a master in the art of illusions.

The house demon Hooty, he could be really annoying at times, as in, REALLY annoying, but he had an heart of gold (literally, Luz once accidentally found some hidden room which contained, apparently, Hooty’s heart. A LITTERAL heart made out of gold).

And of course, last but definitely not least, her best friend, (and maybe secret crush). Someone who loved The Good Witch Azura as much as she did, and one of the most powerful witches she knew: Ami….

“LUZ NOCEDA!!!”

Luz froze. She has been so focused on her thoughts about the house and its inhabitants, that she didn’t nothing that the door of the actual house was thrown open by one of its inhabitants, who was glaring at Luz from the doorway.

The witch had shoulder length mint-green hair with some brown at the roots. She wore a dark blue sweatshirt and black jeans. Her name was Amity Blight, and she was PISSED!

“Where have you been?! You should have been here at least an hour ago!” She shouted as she walked up to Luz.

“Sorry Ams.” Luz apologized. “You know that when I go to Bonesborough I usually end up coming home late.”

“NOT AN HOUR LATE! YOU BETTER HAVE GOOD EXCUSE!”

“It was nothing. I was chased down by Rhodon and his guards, nothing I can’t handle.” She said while she puffed out her chest, which she immediately regretted when the pain of her ribs came back to punish her. She winched and let out a hiss of pain a result.

Amity immediately noticed it and part of her anger was replaced by worry. “Are you okay?” she asked.

“I’m fine Amity.”

“No. you’re not.”

“Amity, I’m totally fine!” Luz replied. The cut on her stomach then reminded her that she was, like Amity said, NOT fine. She subconsciously moved her left arm the keep pressure on the wound.

That did not go unbeknownst to Amity. “Come with me.” She said to the stubborn witch. Luz reluctantly followed her inside the house. “Don’t forget to hang up your cloak.”

When they were inside, Amity closed the front door, as Luz hung up her cloak next to all of the others. That just left her with a shirt and some sweatpants. Amity rolled her eyes at the sweatpants. (Luz’s argument was always: “It may not look professional, but they let you move around more than jeans.”)

“Sit down.” She said while pointing towards the couch.

Luz did what her friend said.

“Lift up you shirt.”

Luz looked at her, knowing what she was getting at. So, she tried to avoid it in the best way possible.

“Shirt? What shirt?” _‘nailed it’_ “I don’t see a shirt, do you see a shirt? Because I don’t see a...- STOP MESSING AROUND!” Amity interrupted her with a shout. “WHY DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND THAT I’M JUST TRYING TO….*sigh*” she calmed down after seeing Luz reaction to her shouting. “I’m trying to see how bad it is. just, please, lift up your shirt Luz.” She practically begged.

Luz looked down at the floor, eyes filled with guilt. She didn’t want to make the worry about her, especially Amity. And now she made her angry as well. “I’m sorry. And, sure.” She said as she lifted up her shirt, showing the cut to the world.

Amity gasped. Luz winched.

Amity had seen wounds before, many in fact. But this one was no small deal: the wound easily went from the left side, to the right side of her torso, it was also diagonal, which meant it was even longer. It went from the right side just below her chest, to the left side of her belly. And even though the wounds was at least an hour old, blood was still coming out.

“Luz…..” Amity said with worry in her voice.

“Amity, I’m fine.” Luz tried reasoning. “It’s not that big of a deal.”

“Not that big of a deal!? Luz, it’s a massive cut, which is still bleeding heavily!” Amity reacted. “How is this not a big deal?! How did you even get this?!”

“Rhodon’s axe. Nothing big.” Luz smirked. “And besides, I still kicked his ass, even with this and my possibly broken ribs, soooooo….- YOUR WHAT?!” ‘ _damn it, why did I say that!’_

Not even giving Luz the chance to say anything, Amity immediately pulled of Luz’s shirt completely.

“HEY!!” Luz called out, while blushing immensely.

Realizing what she had done, Amity’s face became red as well. _‘Why did I do that?!!’_ she thought, her mind had turned into a complete mess. She quickly tried to come up with an answer, but couldn’t come up with one so she resorted on instinct: so she tried to act casual about it. “Oh, don’t be such a whine baby, Luz. We’re both girls.”

Luz crossed her arms over her chest and looked away while pouting, still blushing furiously.

 _‘Amity.exe has stopped working, to much cuteness.’_ Amity had to put effort in to not start squealing. _‘how can she be so adorable and beautiful at the same time!’_ she immediately stopped her train of thought. _‘not now, Amity. Focus.’_ She shook her head to get her thoughts back on Luz’s wounds.

“Now,” Amity said. “Let me see those ribs.” _‘I could have phrased that better. Now I sound like a creep.’_

Luz snorted. “wow, you just had to make it weird.” She said with a smile, showing that it was meant for good fun. “But anyway, sure.” She dropped her arms.

Amity’s eyes enlarged. _‘those are some BIG bruises.’_ “Luz, what in the heck caused this? It looks like you were hit by a speeding Ardow (Ardows are this dimensions type of a Bull in our world.)!”

Luz sighed. “while I was recovering from the cut of the axe, Rhodon kicked me in the chest, multiple time. Probably just so he could see me suffer.”

 _‘I’LL KILL HIM!!’_ Was the first thought that came to Amity’s mind. Shaking that thought aside, she said: “That explains it. Let me look them over, just to be sure.”

“oke.” Was all that Luz replied with. And so, while Amity checked Luz’s bruises, it was completely silent. No words were spoken.

Until..

“hey Luz.”

“yeah?”

“I have a question”

“oke, what is it?”

“how did this happen?”

Luz looked at her perplexed. “I already told you, Rhodon did this to me.”

“No, what I mean is: how did he manage to do this? I mean, normally when you mess with him, why I still don’t always approve, you mostly get away unscathed, but now you come home with big wounds.”

Luz thought that over. “Yeah, that was really weird. He seems to get stronger every time I see him. Today he managed to survive a hit which would have killed any other being. He was mostly fine.”

“Hmmm, that may become a problem later on. We need to keep eyes on him, and take him down when he becomes too strong.”

Luz nodded in agreement.

Some time had passed when Amity was done checking Luz’s injuries.

“I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is that your ribs aren’t broken, the bad news is that they are definitely heavily bruised, so you’re going to feel that for a few weeks.”

“Well, that’s a relieve.” Luz said.

“Indeed, your very lucky that you didn’t get more injuries like the cut on..your….stomach.” Amity then realized something. “hold on a minute.” She said while looking at Luz. “how are you still conscious?”

“What do you mean?”

“What I mean is that the blood loss should have left you unconscious by know, so how did you…?” Amity said as she looked Luz over. Nothing seemed to be of, until she saw the glyph on Luz’s arm. Too most, it wouldn’t mean much, but to her it was all too familiar. “You used ‘it’?

Luz immediately knew what she was talking about. “maybe a little bit.”

“LUZ!” Amity called out. “you know that that thing is bad for you.” Amity pulled the glyph of Luz’s arm.

“I know. But he threatened to hurt you and the others. I couldn’t let that go unpunished!”

“Luz, he won’t be able to hurt us and you know it. They haven’t been able to find us in years, why would they now?

“I know, it’s just….*sigh* I didn’t think.”

“that’s very clear to me. First you get yourself hurt and then you used ‘the glyph’.” Amity said. “and last but not least, you trying to deny your wounds.”

“But I have a good reason for that.”

“what! What POSSIBLE reason could you have for doing tha….- I DIDN’T WANT TO BE A BURDEN!”

“what?”

“I…I didn’t want to be a burden to the doctors, and to you guys. Right now, a lot is going on and I just didn’t want you guys to worry about me.”

Amity looked at her in disbelieve. _‘is she TRYING to kill herself or something?!’_ ”Luz, you really need to take better care of yourself. And us worrying about you, that is what family does! Heck, you acting like this makes us worry even more about you.” She argued. “the others are out looking for you.”

“Oh,” Her friend reacted. “Now I feel incredibly dumb.”

Amity sighed. “Just.. watch out next time. I don’t want you coming home with wounds like these. We care too much about you to see you hurt like this.”

Luz teared up slightly. “thanks Ams.” She said. Then she suddenly hugged her friend.

At first, Amity didn’t know what was going on, but when she realized that Luz was hugging her, she started hugging her back. They kept the hug for like a minute or two, when they finally let go. as they sepparted, they looked at the other and smiled.

When suddenly, Luz hissed in pain. The pain of her bruised ribs and cut popping up again in full force.

Amity noticed. “We should probably get that bandaged up.”

“probably, yeah.”

And so, they cleaned the cut, and put some bandages on her injuries. After they were done, they decided that Luz should take some rest in her room, while Amity would wait for the others to come back.

For her to get to her room, Luz needed to go up the stairs and through the hallway which connected all of the bedrooms. As she walked up the stairs, she looked at the pictures which were hung in the staircase, each with their own backstory.

One picture was taken after the group managed to defeat a Gremlobin which came to close to the town. It was no easy task, seeing that if you looked into the beasts eyes, you would see your worst nightmare. It didn’t help that Edric and Emira poured water on the thing, what made it only bigger and stronger.

Another one was taken after they had a face-off with the Emperor’s Coven. It was a hectic battle, but in the end, they didn’t stand a chance.

And those were just a few of the amount. But there was one which was really dear to Luz, meant more to her than any of them. And not only for her, but for the entire family.

It looked like a normal family photo: Eda, King, Amity, Willow, Gus, her and even Hooty and the twins. Al standing together in front of the Owl House. And even though it looked like a normal photo, it had high emotional value for everyone in the house.

Because that was the first photo taken, after the rebellion was fully formed, after the Guardians of Hope were formed. It was a photo which signaled the begin of it all. That is why it was of such high value for the family.

Luz smiled as she looked at it. _‘those were simpler times, times were we didn’t need to fight for our lives every day. But I don’t regret what I did and have done, and nether does the rest. And if need, we would do it again and again, over and over.’_

Her thoughts faded as she started to walk up the stairs again. When she arrived at the top, she was in a hallway, filled with doors with different symbols on it. And all of them were different;

There was an owl (Eda), a crown (King), a bat (Edric), a mouse (Emira), a rose (Willow), a mirror (Gus) and at the end of the hallway, there were two more doors of two rooms which were next to each other. One had a Raven on it, the other a cat. That was Luz’s room, the other one was Amity’s room.

Luz looked at the hallway, or more specifically, the doors. _‘my family’_ she thought. She then started making her way to her room. As she opened the door and stepped into the room, she was greeted by a pretty much normal looking room, there was a window, a desk with a chair, two beanbag chairs, a few plants, a wardrobe, a dresser, a nightstand, a bookcase and of course a bed.

Luz of course, immediately walked to her bed and falls onto it.

Bad idea.

Her ribs immediately punish her followed by the feeling of her stomach getting ripped open. She turned onto her back as fast as she could, winching while doing it. Sadly when they bandaged it, they could find the crème which is supposed to lessen the pain, so Luz had to sit through it without the wonder crème.

Seeing that she had nothing to do, and was supposed to rest, she started thinking. _‘today was something, that’s for sure. First Ed and Em arriving in the morning and giving us intel about a hidden facilitie of Belos, then the calamity at the market, which ended up with me being chased by the guards and then getting my ass handed to me.’_ She frowned. _‘something is up with the guards. They can be annoying at times, but normally they aren’t this of a pain in the ass.’_ She shook her head. _‘no! bad Luz. Your supposed the be relaxing, not thing up some conspiracy theorie. What are some nicer things to think about?’_ her mind almost immediately jumped towards the photo’s she saw earlier, or more specifically, the family photo.

 _‘it really has been years since then, hasn’t it?’_ she asked herself. _‘and weirdly enough, I can still remember what happened and what was the cause which started the rebellion and the Guardians in the first place’_ she thought.

Her mind then started wandering back, back to when it all started.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so, that was chapter 2. originally I wanted to put Luz's flashback in this chapter as well, but it was already so long that it was better to split it up. this one was a little bit of a troublemaker to write, but I did it. 
> 
> I really hope that I'll finish this story, because starting a story is easy for me, but to keep going with it is hard for me, but I think that that will fade over time (hopefully).
> 
> (also episode 15, Lumity is practicaly confimed at this point :) )
> 
> anyway, hope you all enjoyed it.
> 
> Gr Elementalwriter.


	3. Memories

Chapter 3

_Flashback:_

_It all started so suddenly._

_Luz was walking through town after a day of school, when she heard commotion on the main square. When she arrived, she saw a big group of witches, demos and monsters, surrounding something._

_“What is that all about?” Luz asked herself._

_And so she walked up to the group and squeezed through the crowd._

_“what’s going on?” she asked a random monster._

_“don’t know. All I know is that the Emperor’s Guards are going to make an announcement.” The monster said._

_“oh, okay” ‘wonder what they want to say.’ And so Luz squeezed to the front of the crowd, and saw a small group of Emperor coven guards, just, standing there. When suddenly a higher ranked guard stepped to the front of the group._

_“Attention, attention all citizens of the town Bonesborough!” the guard yelled. “I’m lieutenant Rhodon! I am here to tell you all that our dear Emperor Belos has taken complete control over the entire Boiling Isles. And he thinks that all this time, the Boiling Isles hasn’t been the place it should be, so things are going to change and new rules are going to be made.” And so the guard summoned a scroll in front of him, which apparently contained the new rules._

_‘I always thought that the Emperor already ruled over the entire Boiling Isles. Apparently not.’ Luz thought. ‘I wonder what rules are going to be added? Probably nothing to bad.’_

_“the first new rule is that crime is going to be treated more aggressively then it is now.”_

_‘okay. not to bad so far. Sure, it puts Eda at bigger risks, but she’ll be fine. She always escapes.’_

_“the second new rule is that all of the Covens need to submit to the will of the Emperors coven. They are to be the highest ranked and the other covens will be known as les gifted, and not as important. Every single member of one of the ‘lesser’ covens shall obey the orders given by a member of the Emperors coven.”_

_‘uhm. I… don’t think that is a good idea. All of the covens should be equal, not like …. That!’_

_“and last but not least, everybody should threat the Emperor as a god. Everyone shall swear loyalty to him. and if you say anything bad about the Emperor, especially in public, you will be arrested and put in a cell, no matter who you are.” The guard finished as he rolled up the scroll._

_‘wait, WHAT!!’_

_The guard spoke to the crowd ones more. “those are some of the new rules, and more will follow. Anyone who dares to break any of the rules SHAL be imprisoned. That was all.”_

_As the guards started walking away, the beings in the crowd started talking to each other. Some of them not being all to sure that all of these rules were right, while most of them agreed with the Emperor. That was the main sound to be heard, when suddenly….._

_“NO!!”_

_Everything and everyone froze, including Luz. The guards, who hadn’t fully left yet, turned to who had spoken. It was a being which was made out of slime, who had shouted._

_“the first rule I get. But the other two don’t make any sense! Emperor’s coven as some kind of leader of all the covens?! And I get that the Emperor is powerful, but I will not go and treat him like a GOD! That is just outrageous!”_

_“So you are disobeying the rules?” The leader said._

_“indeed. I know that the Emperor is doing something that isn’t right, for example, how did he suddenly get control over the entire Boiling Isles?! Did the other rulers just give it to him?! I will not follow those absurd rules, not over my dead body!”_

_“First of, to answer your question: yes, the other ‘former’ leaders gave Emperor Belos complete power.” The guard answered. “and secondly, GUARDS! ARREST THIS BALL OF SLIME!!”_

_The other guards quickly surrounded the slime man, all drawing circles. Some of which shot out glowing blue ropes, trapping the citizen, while the others then created a bubble where he was then imprisoned in._

_“Let this be a lesson for everyone who dares to go against the will of the Emperor!” Rhodon shouted to the crowd. “if you misbehave, we will find you and put you in the Conformatorium, where you will spend your time until you learned your lesson, or you don’t leave at all.” He said as he turned around and started walking away with the other guards, with the bubble cell of the slime in tow._

_When the guards were far away enough, the crowd immediately came back to life and most started talking about what had just happened, while the others just walked away._

_But one person in the crowd didn’t do any of that, instead, she was lost in thought. ‘these rules don’t make sense. Crime doesn’t happen that often that the rules need to be changed, and the other two make even less sense. The Emperor’s coven as superior? Treating the Emperor as some kind of god? That just doesn’t make any sense, why is that even needed?’ Luz frowned. ‘and that guy was arrested for only speaking his mind, which you should be allowed to do!’ she quickly turned around and started running through town._

_‘I need to tell Eda about this!’_

_“Eda!” the girl shouted as she threw open the door._

_The sounds of things falling on the ground come from the kitchen. Apparently Eda was making something. A few seconds later, Eda come into the living room._

_“Sheesh kid, there are better ways to say that your home.” She then saw the troubled look in the eyes of her apprentice. “wait, something is wrong. What happened?”_

_“well, you see these guards came into town an…..- CAN YOU TWO BE QUIET!” Luz was suddenly interrupted by King, who had come in the room carrying his stuffed bunny. “Some demons are trying to take a nap!”_

_Luz walked up to him, picked him up and started hugging him “I’m sorry that I woke you up King, I know how cranky you get if you don’t get your nap time.”_

_“your damn right.” The little demon reacted._

_After the human was done hugging her little demon friend, she put him back on the ground. “but just out of curiosity,” the demon said. “what were you two talking about?”_

_“well, apparently something happened at the market,” The owl lady said. “but I don’t know WHAT because ‘someone’ came barging in the room, nagging about his nap being interrupted.”_

_“HEY! My naps are very important!”_

_“guys! Calm down. Can I finally tell what happened?!”_

_“sure.” ”okay.” the two said as they sat down on the couch._

_“okay, so I was walking on the market, when suddenly…..” and so, Luz told everything that had happened, from the guards showing up, to the slime creature getting arrested. Near the end, King had fallen asleep on the couch._

_“hmmm. That isn’t good.” Eda said after Luz was done telling her story._

_“what do you mean?”_

_“well, let’s just say that it is a really bad thing that the Belos now has full control over the Boiling Isles.”_

_“Yeah, about that.” Luz said. “I always thought that the Emperor already ruled over the entire Boiling Isles, but he didn’t. How does that work?”_

_“Well you see Luz,” Eda began. “The Boiling Isles is split up in multiple parts; the head, the right arm, the left arm, the left leg, the right leg and of course, the torso. Each part is ruled by their own ruler. And together they rule over the Isles.” She explained. “this way, the rulers didn’t get too much power.”_

_“But isn’t the torso the biggest part and with that the strongest?”_

_“it might be the biggest, but it is just as powerful as the other parts.”_

_“okay, but why is it so bad that the Emperor rules over the entire Boiling Isles? I mean, the new rules are really dumb, but what is the worst that could happen?”_

_“the worst thing that could happen, is that the entire Boiling Isles is going to go to shit.”_

_“EDA!!” Luz reacted. “no cursing!”_

_“Kid, believe me, when you reach a certain age, you don’t care of you or someone else curses.”_

_“okay, fine. But what do you mean with the Boiling Isles going… down?”_

_“What I mean, is that all of the other leaders were essential in the wellbeing of the Isles.” The witch explained. “they were the only ones who were able to keep Belos in check.”_

_“In check?”_

_“let’s just say that, some of the ideas of Belos were a little, eccentric. Those of course didn’t get accepted by the others, and so, they weren’t used.”_

_“Wait. How do you know that? You would think that those meetings would be closed off from the outside world.”_

_“They are, but when you have traveled around like I have, you hear a lot of stuff which were supposed to stay private.”_

_“Okay, but he can’t go too far, right? At some point the public is going to fight back.”_

_“You would think that, but no.” the women said. “Belos holds so much power right now, that he could literally give an order to destroy an entire town, and he would get berated for it. Before all this, the people already knew that they needed to watch out with what they said about Belos, but now, if you say one wrong thing about him, you apparently immediately get imprisoned.” The witch grimaced. “I’m telling you, kid. Dark times are approaching.”_

_“oh come on. You’re probably overreacting. It can’t get TOO bad, right?”_

_The next few weeks had proved the girl wrong. In that timespan, multiple new laws were made. One of the laws was that, every town in the Boiling Isles needed to have statues of him. and as an addition to the rule was that if you walked past one, you needed to bow to the statue and say: “glory to the Emperor.”_

_That on its own would be a problem, IF it wasn’t so that in Bonesborough alone, there were more then forty statues, so if you payed respect, you would walk a few steps, and then have to pay respect to another statue, and so on and on._

_And if you DARED to not pay respect, you would be chased down by the guards and you would get a huge bill to pay. If you cant pay for the bill, you would be put in a jailcell._

_Some rules become worse over time. At some point, it was that if you were caught for a crime, your entire family would suffer. Even if you only stole an apple, there were big consequences, unfitting for the crime which was committed._

_‘what has the Boiling Isles become?’ Luz asked herself, as she walked through town. Every being was on edge, afraid that they would break one of the rules. when no one was watching, she dove into an alley._

_In the time that the statues were placed, she and Eda managed to figure out a route which managed to avoid all of the Emperor Belos statues, except for one. But you couldn’t avoid that one even if you tried. That statue was the absolutely massive one in the middle of the town square. And seeing that the town square had all of the stalls which were selling essentials, you could get around it._

_‘at first, the staues weren’t that big of a problem, you could just avoid them.’ Luz thought as she walked. ‘Sadly the Emperor got word of it and made the law that if you were caught avoiding the statues, you would be imprisoned for a month. Ridiculous if you ask me.’_

_‘sadly, I can’t really do eniting about it. If I could, I would.’ She thought. The girl stood still for a moment, deep in thought. ‘someone should do something about this, this isn’t right. Sadly, no one is willing to stand up.’ She sighed._

_She was about to continue walking, when suddenly she heard a scream, coming from a alley, connected to the one she was in. the first thing that came to her mind was that she should help the person who was in trouble._

_When suddenly a shout was heard. “stop in the name of the Emperor!”_

_As a result she looked down at the ground, sad, knowing that she probably couldn’t really help whoever that was. She would just get in trouble._

_“HA! Got you now, you brat!”_

_Luz looked away from the side-alley in shame, ‘I won’t be able to help, they already caught him or her. I at this point would just make it worse.’ She started walking away, when suddenly….._

_“LET GO OF ME! LEAVE ME ALONE!” the ‘victim’ of the guards shouted, but now, Luz recognized the voice and a bad feeling started to boil in her stomach. As quickly as she could, she turned around and ran it the side-alley._

_She quickly arrived at a corner, which was the only thing between her and the guards and their ‘victim’. As she took a quick peek, she saw some barrels. A good place to hide._

_She quickly booked it and dived behind the barrels. Sadly that made some noise. One of the guards started looking around._

_“did you just hear something?” he asked the other. Luz held her breath._

_“something outside of her hopeless shouting? Nope.” The other guard answered. “probably just the wind.”_

_“yeah, your probably right. Now, back to Miss troublemaker over here.” He said as he turned towards their catch._

_“you really thought you could just ignore the rules like that, didn’t you?” Luz heard one of the guards say._

_“you really thought you could away with it too, didn’t you?” the other said._

_“well, news flash little girl, things have changed. Nobody escapes the Emperors guards.”_

_“you want to know what I think of your new rules? they STINK!!” the voice yelled._

_Luz knew that voice, all too well. But just to confirm that she wasn’t going crazy, she peeked over the barrels, to take a look at the innocent person the guards had caught._

_It was who she thought it was._

_The guards had caught a young witch, about her age. She had green hair, but with brown roots. She was wearing a black dress with purple leggings, black shoes and a necklace. And seeing how she looked at the guards, she definitely wasn’t someone who liked to be intimidated, and was already kind of used to it._

_It was none other, than her friend: Amity Blight. She was caught in blue magical ropes, unable to move, with her back against the wall._

_“you better unhand me now, or you will be in big trouble!” Amity called out._

_“and why would that be, little girl?!” one of the guards asked with a mocking voice._

_“because, I am the protégé of Lilith Clawthorne, the leader of the Emperors coven!” the witch said with a confident smirk. “and if you even dare to hurt me, you will get to hear from Ms. Clawthorne herself.”_

_It was silent for a moment, and Luz hoped that that meant that the guards realized that they should leave Amity alone. Until, one of them started laughing._

_“you don’t get it do you?” he said with a sinister voice. “Ms Clawthornes role as the leader of the Emperor’s coven, means nothing compared to the rules that the Emperor has put in place. And you, brat, have broken multiple rules.”_

_“oh yeah,” Amity said. “which ones?!”_

_“well, to start off, you walked past more then fifteen statues of the Emperor, and didn’t pay respect to any of them. Secondly, you have broken rule 23 of the age of a new rule: every single valuable gem will be given to the Emperor, and that gem on you necklace is worth a big amount of snails. And so it belongs to the Emperor.” He said as he ripped her necklace of her neck. “also, you broke one of the newest rules: no use of magic in town, without a license!”_

_“what! That rule doesn’t exist!”_

_It does exist, actually, the rule was put in use today.” The guard answered. “but lets continue. One of the reasons why you here, is also that your older brother and sister broke some rules and escaped. We haven’t found them yet so that means they haven’t had a punishment yet, which means that their family members suffer extra hard. As we were following you, we also caught some criticism pointed towards the Emperor.” The guard then took of his mask, exposing a human head but the only difference was the pointy ears. he also had dark red hair and a small beard, but he looked relatively young, somewhere in his twenties._

_But his worst feature, was the evil grin on his face. “but, we also wanted to have a little bit of fun.”_

_“fun?” Amity asked, a slight shiver in her voice._

_Luz’s mind immediately began racing, ‘fun? What could they mean with tha……. No, no!’_

_“indeed. You see, the live as a guard is very stressful, and we don’t get a lot of time off. So we have to make dew with what we can get.” The man said with a toothy grin. “and us two just happened to run in on a little girl who is busy breaking the rules. we couldn’t let this chance go.”_

_Amity and Luz by now fully realized what they meant._

_“y-you…you can’t do that, you’re guards! That would go against everything you stand for!”_

_“well guess what little girl, times have changed.”_

_You won’t get away with this!”_

_“wrong again. We will get away with this easily. The Emperor doesn’t care what we do while working, as long as we make people follow the rules and punish the guilty.” His grin got bigger. “He never said ‘how’.”_

_Luz couldn’t believe it. These guards were just giant perverts. They were no better than the criminals they locked up! Luz was full of RAGE!!! Her eyes contained fires which could burn down a house in minutes, of not seconds. She got ready to jump out and help her friend, when the main guard started talking again._

_“now, enough talking.” He said as he made the magical bindings cover Amity’s mouth. “lets show this little whore who runs the show here.”_

_He should have kept his mouth shut, because at that point, something in Luz SNAPPED!_

_‘WHO DOES HE THINK HE IS!!! NO ONE!!! ABSOLUTELY NO ONE TREATED HER FRIEND LIKE THAT!!! SCREW MAKING A PLAN!!’ she thought as she jumped over the barrels with a raged battle cry._

_The guards didn’t expect this and immediately looked towards the teenage girl, running towards them. Amity was surprised as well, she did not expect Luz to suddenly pop up out of nowhere, not that she didn’t appreciate it, she very much did, it was just unexpected._

_Not waiting for the guards to recover from the shock, Luz launched an attack. She, while following the sounds of Amity and the guards, had drawn some glyphs in preparation. And so, she quickly activated one of them and threw it right at one of the two guards. The glyph, which turned out to be a light glyph, hit the guard in the face, created a flash of light which blinded him. He screamed as he covered up his eyes._

_Luz wanted to use another glyph, when the main guard recovered and fired a lightning spell at her, attempting to paralyze her. Luz luckily saw it and ducked, sending the spell flying past her. As a response, she threw another glyph. The glyph landed on the ground in front of the guard._

_He laughed ay her. “ you really think that THAT would affect me?! You didn’t even hit me, AND that blinding trick wouldn’t have worked on me.” He said._

_Luz smirked a devilish grin. “We says it was the same spell?”_

_His eyes widened as the ground started to shake. Before he could do anything, masive plant vines grew from the ground, capturing him. It quickly formed around him, covering him from the top of his head, to his toes._

_When he was captured, Luz quickly ran towards Amity._

_“Amity1 are you alright?!”_

_“Mmmmmhmmmhm” was all Amity could respond._

_“Oh, yeah. Right sorry.” Luz apologized. She quickly started to pul on the restraints keeping her friend trapped. They didn’t really budge, probably because they were made out of magic, instead of rope. “We got a little problem, they won’t even bend.” Luz started thinking, what was that lesson again about ways to cancel out spells._

_‘One of the ways is that you dispel it with your own spell, can’t do that.’ She thought. ‘ and I don’t really remember the others so…. Wait, I do remember another. You can also cancel out a spell, if you overload it, that is mostly done with spells working directly with energy. But I don’t have any energy related spells. WAIT! Light is also a form of energy!’ She realized as she quickly grabbed all the light glyphs directly at her disposal. ‘Lets hope this works.’_

_And so Luz put all of her light glyphs on the bindings and activated them. at first, nothing seemed to happen. When the spell suddenly started to flicker until it just fizzled out and Amity was free._

_Amity immediately tried to calm down, a lot was going on right now. When she calmed down, which happened remarkably fast, she, of course, thanked Luz._

_“Thank you Luz. I don’t want to even think of what would have happened if you weren’t here.” Amity said as she shivered at the thought alone._

_“No problem, Ams. That is what friends do.” Luz said with a smile. “Now, we should probably get out of her before…”_

_Before Luz could finish her sentence, the cocoon of vines trapping the guard went up in flames. Out of the small sea of flames stepped the guard, completely unharmed. He was pissed off._

_“You little imbecile, do you even know who you are up against!?”_

_“To be honest, no. I really don’t, but I don’t really care.”_

_The guard growled. “I am lieutenant Rhodon! One of the strongest guards of the Boiling Isles!”_

_‘Rhodon?’ Luz thought. ‘That name is weirdly familiar.’_

_Then realization struck her._

_“Your the guard who announced the new rules on the day that the Emperor took over the Isles!”_

_“So you saw that, huh.”_

_“Indeed I did.” Luz glared at him. “I knew that something was wrong with you the moment I saw you!”_

_The corrupt guard laughed. “You should have listened to that feeling. Then you wouldn’t be here, protecting the convict.”_

_“Convict!!” Luz shouted. “She didn’t do anything wrong! Not her fault that your rules don’t make sense!”_

_“You can say whatever you want, it won’t get you out of this situation.” He started looking around. “Now, where is Charles?” When he looked to his right he could see Charles on the ground. Turns out, while blinded, he had run into a pole and knocked himself out._

_Rhodon sighed. “I really got to do everything myself, don’t I?!” He turned back towards the girls with a creepy smirk. Luz immediately stepped in front of Amity, guarding her against the guard._

_“Lets continue, shall we?” He said as he quickly drew a circle and send some kind of ball flying at the girls. As it harmlessly landed on the ground, the girls looked at each other, both confused._

_When suddenly the ball exploded in a cloud of smoke, which surrounded the girls fast._

_“I can’t *cough* see anyth- *cough* anything. Luz! What is *cough* going on!”_

_“Don’t know.” Luz called out, when she quickly covered her mouth. “Cover you mouth! It makes breathing and talking easier!” She looked around, not being able to see anything. “And for what happened, I think he launched some sort of magic smoke bomb at US!”_

_The last word came out as a shout as a hand suddenly grabbed her arm and threw her against the wall on the opposite side of the alley. Luz cried out in pain when her back hit the immovable object._

_“You really are something, aren’t you. A little witch like you should meddle with other peoples affairs.” He said. Then he saw Luz’s ears. “You’re not a witchling, you’re a human!” He said, shocked. “I have heard rumors about a human living in the Boiling Isles, but I never really believed it.” He then smirks. “ I bet that if I catch you and deliver you to the Emperor I will get a big reward.”_

_“Then you need to catch her first!” Came a shout behind the guard. When he turned around, he saw a purple fireball heading right for him. It hit him full in the chest and launched him backwards when it exploded on impact._

_Out of the smoke, came a angry Amity Blight. In her hands was another fireball, ready for use. Luz smiled._

_“You have been training with your fire spell, haven’t you?”_

_A small smile appeared on Amity’s face. “Indeed. And I don’t have any kind of regret doing it right now.”_

_“Uuuuugh” came from the direction of Rhodon. The girls looked in his direction, seeing that he was getting back up. He looked at them with hate in his eyes. “You shall pay for that. Even if it is the last thing I do.” He said as he jumped up and immediately fired a spell. The spell a fireball right at the two friends, who just managed to duck. “You want to play with fire? I can do that too!” He said as he fired another one._

_Amity fired one of her own, which hit the other fireball, causing a fiery explosion, making a big cloud of dark smoke as a result._

_“well, well, well. Looks like the witchling can fight back.” The guard said. “sadly for you two, I am more experienced. I have been in magical duels for years, while you two are just starting. Just give up, then I might go easy on you.”_

_The two girls looked each other in the eyes. Seeing the determination in the others eyes, they gave a nod and faced towards their attacker._

_“sorry, but we aren’t planning on giving up that easily.” Amity said._

_“that means, if you want to capture us, you going to have to defeat us in a duel.” Luz added._

_“so be it.” Rhodon said._

_At first, no one moved. Both sides were watching their opponents, not daring to make the first move._

_Luz and Amity were watching Rhodon, keeping track of every little bit of movement. Both on edge, ready to dodge or attack in the fraction of a second._

_Amity looked confident on the outside, but on the inside she was extremely nervous. ‘we can’t lose this. If we do, I would end up as the guard’s plaything and Luz would be brought to the Emperor.’ If you looked closely, you could see tiny sweat droplets on her forehead._

_Luz, instead of feeling nervous, was ready. Ready for whatever tricks the guard would try to pull. She also was incredibly angry. Not only because of what happened earlier, but also because the guard thought he would get away with this._

_Rhodon meanwhile, was very relaxed. He knew exactly what he had to do. And when he would win, he would even have an extra prize._

_“I just realized,” he said to his opponents. “why would I immediately send you to the Emperor, when I could be having some fun with you.” He said towards Luz. “why would I just take the witchling, if I can also have you?! Then, before I send you towards the Emperor, I can show you that you kind is inferior towards ours.” He had a smile full of venom. “maybe I can even ask the Emperor if I can keep you as a pet! Seeing that you are probably worthle- UUGH!” he said as he suddenly took a fireball to the stomach._

_Luz looked to her left, and saw a fuming Amity._

_While the guard had been talking, the nervousness inside of her had turned into anger. And when he said that Luz would be kept as a pet, her self-control broke and she threw the prepared fireball at him._

_“DON’T YOU TALK ABOUT HER LIKE THAT!! YOU DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT HER!!” Amity shouted as she made another fireball and threw it._

_This time, the guard was prepared and he blocked it with a small barrier. “would you look at that, you really care about the human, don’t you?” he said with a grin. “and she seems to really care about you. Which means that if I defeat one of you, the other has no other choise but to surrender.” He said, which was followed by a lightning bolt._

_“we’ll see about that!” Luz said as she got out an ice glyph and threw it on the ground, creating a wall of ice to block the attack._

_“not good enough!”_

_A fireball hit the wall of ice, melting it instantly, which also created a big amount of fog._

_When the fog cleared enough, he saw that the kids weren’t there anymore._

_“what! Where did they go?!”_

_*whistle*_

_He looked to the left, just in time to receive a flash of light in his face._

_“raaah!” he cried out. “nice try, but that trick doesn’t work on me.”_

_“maybe blinding you wasn’t the idea!”_

_“Abomination, rise!”_

_Suddenly, a purple abomination came from the ground, right in front of him._

_“Abomination, restrain!”_

_Hearing the command, the purple being walked to Rhodon. He wanted to react, but found plant vines restraining his hands. And so, the abomination caught him, keeping him form hurting his mistress and her friend._

_“let me go right this second!” he yelled._

_“yeeeaah, no!” Luz said, while walking towards Amity to stand next to her. “you’re not going to get out of that very soon.” She said with a mocking smile._

_“you are going to have some explaining to do when we report this to Ms. Clawthorne.” Amity told him._

_The girls then turned away and started walking, leaving the guard behind._

_Luz looked at Amity and saw the leftovers of fear in her eyes._

_“hey, are you okay?”_

_“huh?” Amity looked at her friend._

_“I’m asking if you’re okay. A lot of stuff just happened and I want to make sure you fine.”_

_“I’m fine Luz. Really, I am.”_

_Luz frowned. ‘she’s covering it up. But if she doesn’t want to talk about it, I won’t push any further.’ “okay, great to hear.” Silence. “sooooo, where are we going?”_

_“we’re going to Ms Clawthorne and report him.”_

_“good idea-…YOU TWO ARE GOING NOWHERE!!” suddenly was heard from behind them._

_The girls turned around quickly. What they saw, was bad news all over._

_Rhodon was free._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one was supposed to be longer, but I split it in two parts. this way it has a better feel to it. I might also make some edits to the first chapter.
> 
> PS. did you see episode 16?! my favorite episode yet!! the final dance was beautiful. the fight between Eda and Lilith was first my favorite scene, but this one left the fight between the sisters in the dust!!  
> if you haven't seen it yet, GO SEE IT!!  
> (sorry, I just REALLY loved the episode.)
> 
> and yes, its getting darker. I know. let me know what you think of it, advice and constructive critism is always welcome.
> 
> Gr Elementalwriter.


	4. Rampage

Chapter 4:

_Rhodon stood in front of them, a big frown on his face and fire in his eyes. Next to him stood the other guard, who apparently had woken up and had helped him escape._

_“You thought I was defeated, did you?!” he said. “that is one of the main differences between us. You two just leave, while I would have finished my opponent off.”_

_“Well, we don’t want to be like you. not even in a thousand years!” Luz reacted._

_Rhodon smirked at her. “Maybe you should be, seeing that you also didn’t keep an eye on my partner, who, while you weren’t watching him, woke up and helped me getting out of your pathetic trap.” he said mockingly. “But then again, the power of the trap fits with the power of the caster.”_

_Luz and Amity glared at him. “Luz isn’t weak!” “Neither is Amity!” the girls called out._

_“The results don’t lie.” He looked at them with a smug look. “But then again, you are fighting against one of the top guards of the Emperor’s coven.”_

_“I highly doubt that,” Amity said. “Seeing that you aren’t even of the highest rank in the guard.”_

_“In some cases, ranks don’t matter.” He responded. “and let’s just say that I am very special.”_

_“Yeah, I can see that.” Luz said. “oh, wait. No, I don’t. the only thing that causes me to believe that you’re special, is that you are a massive creep!”_

_“Indeed, and besides, we already beat you and your friend. Who says we can’t do it again?!”_

_At that, the other guard started laughing. “The only reason of why you managed to take me out, is because I couldn’t react in time.” He explained. “but now, your element of surprise has long worn of and you can impossibly win.”_

_“Shut it Charles!” Rhodon called out to his partner. He then turned towards the teenagers again. “but he’s right. There is absolutely no way that you are going to be able to win. Absolutely impossible!”_

_“I would like to challenge those odds.” Luz responded. “I mean, I’m a human who’s able to do magic, it is kind of a hobby of mine to make the impossible possible.” The human said with a shrug._

_“Is that so?” Rhodon said. “I would like to test that.”_

_He immediately drew a magic circle, firing a projectile at the human. Before Luz could react, the projectile hit her, sending her flying backwards. She luckily didn’t hit anything, and just hit the ground, though it still hurt._

_“LUZ!” Amity called out, seeing her friend get launched. She then turned towards the guards and fired a fireball at Rhodon._

_It was about to hit, when suddenly a barrier popped up out of nowhere, and the intended target had not cast a single spell. Then she saw that his partner had drawn a spellcircle, which had called up the barrier. She realized she was in deep trouble, so she began running towards Luz._

_“not so fast.” The lieutenant called out, as he drew another circle, which caused the ropes lying around the alley to come to life and jump at Amity, intending to restrain her._

_She luckily saw them coming at her, and dodged most of them and incinerated the others. As a response, she created another fireball and chucked it at the guards, which exploded right in front of them, obscuring their vision._

_She quickly arrived at her friend, who managed to slightly get up and rest on her elbows. “Luz, are you okay?”_

_“uugh,” the human groaned. “could be better, but also could be worse.”_

_Amity looked at her with a small smile. ‘even if we are in danger, she still tries to stay positive.’ She frowned. ‘something I wouldn’t be able to do.’_

_“let’s get you back on your legs.” The witchling said as she grabbed Luz’s arms and started pulling her up._

_As she helped Luz get back up, coughing could be heard from the guards. Suddenly the smoke started clearing up. Apparently Rhodon had cast a wind spell to get rid of the smoke faster._

_By the time that Luz was steady on her legs again, all of the smoke had been cleared, no longer blocking the sight of the guards._

_“you two are really annoying you know that!” The lieutenant called out, while he prepared another spell. Neither of the kids reacted, and fired the spell, which was heading right for Amity’s back._

_The spell exploded on impact, creating a small cloud of black smoke in the process. A scared cry was heard._

_But then the smoke cleared, a pillar of ice could be seen, damaged, but still standing. Behind it, Luz was standing with a glare towards the guards. Amity meanwhile could be seen behind her with big eyes._

_‘I didn’t even see that spell coming,’ the witch thought. ‘Luz just saved my life!’_

_“nice try, but you’ll have to do better than that if you want to beat us.” The human said with a icy voice. “my turn.” She quickly pulled out a glyph, which wasn’t familiar to Amity, which was kind of weird because she helped Luz finding new glyphs, and after activating it, threw it at the guards._

_Amity and their opponents saw that the spell crumbled in on itself, when it suddenly caught on fire._

_‘a fireball?!’ Amity thought. ‘when did she learn that?’_

_Right before the fireball could hit its target, it was blocked by another barrier._

_Luz, pissed off, started chucking more fireballs. Luckily she had prepared a bunch before she left the Owl House. All of her attacks were stopped by the barrier, which appeared to not even have a scratch._

_“impressive.” Rhodon said as the last spell hit the barrier. “the human can actually fight back, and not just throw up some miserable defenses and traps.”_

_“will you just SHUT UP!”_

_Amity looked at Luz, shocked. Her friend had never used that type of language before. normally when someone talked like that, Luz would ask them to stop, but now she didn’t seem to care._

_“you two just keep on talking, and talking! I’m sick of it!” the human called out._

_“Well, just surrender and it will be over.”_

_“I have a better deal: you two leave us alone and we won’t report you.”_

_“Hmmm,” Rhodon was thinking it over._

_“Nah.”_

_A ball of with looked like some weird slime was fired at the girls, who just managed to duck. They were about to go into the offensive when another spell was thrown at them, and another, and another. Spells were flying at them constantly, and all they could do is dodge them. Then they saw an opening and fired back. Both attacks missed and they went back to dodging._

_“If this continues,” Amity said to her friend, “then we won’t be able to fight back, seeing that we will be too worn out to do anything.”_

_“You’re right. We need to see if we can put a stop to this.” The human replied, as a magic blast flew past her head. “and fast.”_

_Luz started looking around, hoping to find something that could help them. ‘I can’t really use my glyphs right now, I’ve only got a limited supply and in the time that I need to pull one out, activate it and throw it, I could easily get hit. We can’t use one of the barrels, they are too far away. Most of the ropes are unusable, because must of them are burned. There are some bricks, but we can’t really do anything with them.’_

_The situation continued to look more and more hopeless. The items around them were either out of their reach, they would be useless, or were too damaged to use. And when Luz looked at her friend while diving out of the way of a lightning bolt, she saw the Amity wasn’t doing well. She had some slight burns and bruises from hitting the ground roughly to dodge some of the attacks, and she was sweating big time._

_Luz wasn’t fairing any better. She too, was getting tired as well. It would take all to long before she wouldn’t be able to avoid the spells being fired at them. Her movement was getting sluggish and slower._

_They were done for. She herself wasn’t able to use her glyphs fast enough, and Amity couldn’t draw the spells fast enough with her hands._

_That was when she remembered something. ‘at Grom night, Amity didn’t need her hands to draw a spellcircle, she did it with her feet! And seeing the movements that we have to make to avoid getting hit, she should be able to draw it end call up an abomination!’_

_“Amity!” Luz called out. “You need to call up an abomination!”_

_Luckily the guards couldn’t hear them, since they were too busy with coming up with ways to torture the teenagers._

_“What?! How do you expect me to do that?! I need to move so much I can’t even draw a small one!”_

_Luz smirked. “Maybe not with your hands, but there are other parts of your body you can use.” She said as she looked at her with a twinkle in her eye. “Grom surely remembers.”_

_She saw the realization in her friend’s eyes, a small spark of hope igniting. She nodded._

_“Then may I have this dance?” Luz said, as she extended her hand._

_Amity smiled as she grabbed her hand._

_Luz quickly pulled her in towards herself, also causing a bolt of magic to mis her friend by a hair. She started spinning her around, building up momentum._

_“What are you two doing?!” Rhodon called out, momentarily stopping firing spells._

_That gave the teens enough time for Luz to spin Amity around on her heels with her legs apart, creating a spell circle in the process._

_“Wait,” the lieutenant realized what they were trying. “NO!” he immediately fired a explosive blast at them._

_Sadly for him, he was too late. The huge abomination had started rising out of the ground, lifting Amity and Luz up in the air, lifting them out of harm’s way._

_The teens quickly slid of his back to the ground, and when they were back an the rough ground the abomination lunged at the guards._

_“Oh no.” Rhodon muttered before the Abomination reached them. When the massive beast of purple slime hit them they were engulfed by the slime, getting stuck in the process. They tried to get out but then the slime engulfed their heads, covering them completely._

_Luz and Amity looked on as the guards were trying to get out, and then stopped moving completely._

_“we did it!” Amity called out. “thank god.” She let out a sigh. A hand was suddenly placed on her shoulder. She looked next to her and saw Luz with a serious expression, still looking at the pile of slime. “Luz?”_

_Her friend kept looking at the slime, her gaze never leaving it. “it’s not over yet.” She said._

_“what do you mean? They are obviously stuck. We won.”_

_Luz shook her head. “If I have learned one thing of these guys, its that they will never give up.”_

_“okay, but if we run away, they won’t be able to catch us.”_

_“Possibly, but I highly doubt it. They will free themselves and they will hunt us down, we won’t be safe anymore.” Her gaze sharpened. “that means that we need to fight them of, right here right now.”_

_At that moment the slime of the abomination started boiling, bubbles appearing at the surface._

_Luz Immediately reached for her pen and paper. “get ready, Amity.”_

_The witchling nodded as he prepared herself, both physically and mentally._

_Both of the girls got into battle positions, as the slime’s boiling got more and more extreme._

_When al off a sudden, a stream of fire erupted from the side of the small mountain of slime, pointed right towards the girls. They dove out of the way, just before the fire reached them. As the fire dissipated, the two guards walked out of the pile, covered with purple goop, but not particularly hurt._

_Rhodon did not look happy, neither did his partner. “you two are incredibly annoying, you know that?!”_

_“oh we know,” Luz said with a smirk. “and we don’t care.”_

_Both guards looked at the teens with angry looks. Charles called out. “Just give up! You can’t beat us.”_

_The girls looked at each other and Luz nodded. Amity grinned as she looked at the guards and said: “We’ll have to see about THAT!”._

_At the final word, she threw a fireball. Sadly the guards saw it coming and stepped to the side._

_What they didn’t know was that Amity hadn’t left it at one. A dozen fireballs immediately followed and those were harder to dodge, seeing the amount. Meanwhile Luz took off, and had begun sprinting towards the guards, glyphs at the ready._

_They quickly threw up a magical barrier, blocking the fireballs, thinking that they were fine._

_But the moment that they dropped the shield, Luz threw some glyphs at them. Unable to react, the glyphs hit the ground._

_At first nothing happened, when the ground suddenly started shaking. The two had to try to keep standing, when big vines erupted from the ground._

_“What is happening!” Charles called out._

_“Again these plants?! You already tried this, and it failed.”_

_“maybe, but last time, we were going easy on you.”_

_“now, we won’t.” Amity said as she cast another spell. “Abominations, rise!”_

_“Abominations, restrain!”_

_The Abominations were walking towards the guards, arms in front of them, groaning along the way._

_Rhodon and Charles were still busy with the vines, each time that they destroyed a bunch, Luz would throw another glyph, creating another plant._

_The moment that the abominations reached them, Rhodon was done playing around._

_“ENOUGH!” he yelled, as he drew a circle above his head. The spell created a shockwave, which spread through the entire alley, destroying the vines and the abominations instantly and throwing Luz and Amity backwards._

_Amity was thrown on the ground, while Luz was smacked into one of the walls._

_As the girls were getting back up, both guards fired a spell. Rhodon launched another slime ball, just like the one that was used in earlier, meanwhile, Charles had summoned some magical ropes._

_The slimeball hit Amity full in her chest, sending her flying backwards even more and sticking her on the backwall. Luz, at the same time, got trapped by the ropes wounding around her, binding her legs together and trapping her arms in front of her body, which in the process made her drop her pieces of paper. The moment that the rope had fully trapped, it anchored itself into the wall, lifting her of the ground._

_Luz and Amity started struggling, both trying to get out of the traps._

_But to no avail._

_The rope almost made it impossible for Luz to move, and the slime had completely immobilized Amity. As the realized that there was no way to get out, they looked at each other, hoping that the other had a plan. There was none._

_“Well, well, well. Looks like we finally caught you.” Rhodon boasted. “both of you.”_

_“WHY CAN’T YOU JUST LEAVE US ALONE?!” Luz called out._

_“Because,” Rhodon explained. “Mis Blight over here broke the rules and now has to pay, and you,” he said while looking at Luz. “have committed what we call a ‘obstruction of arrest’, which is also a crime. and as you know, since Emperor Belos took over, crime is punished way harder than before.”_

_Amity gulped as a response and said: “W-W-Wat are you going to do to us?”_

_“Well,” he began. “you remember how our little encounter started?”_

_“Y-Yeah.” Amity responded. “Why?”_

_“Well, lets just say that I wasn’t lying.” Rhodon said with a dark smirk._

_Amity instantly paled. Luz’s eyes meanwhile grew big in realization._

_“Your kidding, r-right?” said a hopeful Amity._

_“Sadly, for you,” the guard said as he walked up to her. “I’m not.”_

_He stopped right in front of her, barely three meters away from her. It may sound like a decent distance, but for Luz and especially Amity, it was almost the same as three centimeters. “I can promise you, I was and am, very serious.”_

_Amity started sweating immensely. ‘Please, just let this be a nightmare. Please don’t let this be happening to me.’_

_“You leave her alone!!” Luz shouted._

_“Quiet you!” Charles told her. “when we are done with her, its your turn. After that, we will deliver you to the Emperor.”_

_“Actually Charles,” Rhodon said. “I thought it over, and I’m actually not going to do that first thing to her.”_

_“Your not?” Charles said._

_Luz let out a sigh of relieve._

_“Yeah, instead I am going to beat her up, and maybe cause some permanent scars.”_

_“Wait, what!” Both of the girls called out._

_“I mean, I don’t think that the Emperor will care about the status of her, as long as he gets her.”_

_He turned towards Amity again. “But enough talking. Its time to have some well deserved fun.” He said as he walked closer the girl, who started struggling again against the slime._

_‘A plan, a plan, a plan, we need a plan!’ Luz thought, her mind racing at top speeds. ‘I can’t let this happen. Not to anyone. But especially not Amity.’ She started looking around. Luckily for her, Charles had turned towards Rhodon and his ‘victim’. ‘there isn’t anything that I can use, or even reach, seeing that my arms are stuck. I can’t even draw a glyph as I lost my paper. I do still have my pen, so if I can find something to draw on I can save us.’_

_‘sadly, I can’t grab anything to write on and I also can’t reach the wall behind me.’ She came to the realization: ‘I-I-I can’t get us out of here.’ She thought as she looked down. ‘we’re doomed. I’m going to be given to the Emperor, who probably knows that I live with Eda, presumably through Lilith, and I’m going to be interrogated for days on end, if not straight up tortured.’ She sighed. ‘and as much as I don’t want to tell them anything, they will probably break me, get the information and attack the Owl House.’_

_‘to not even speak about what is going to happen to Amity. She going to be used as a disposable toy. She’s probably also going to end up in jail because she broke their STUPID RULES!!’ a flare of anger filled her mind. She looked up at the guard, which was slowly advancing on Amity. ‘unbelievable that they are going to get away with this. And I wouldn’t be amazed if more victims will follow.’ She frowned. ‘Heck, I wouldn’t be amazed if Amity wasn’t their first victim.’_

_She sighed again. ‘but as much as I want to stop this, I can’t.’ she looked down at her wrists. ‘without my glyphs, I’m useless.’_

_“You know, little girl? You should be honored.” Rhodon spoke, outside of her field of vision. “your first time ever will be with one of the best Emperors guards in existence.” Luz could almost hear him smirk. “sadly for you, it will probably also be your last time, seeing that after this you won’t even be willing to show yourself in public, ever again.”_

_Another flare of anger flooded Luz’s mind. But seeing that she couldn’t do anything, she just looked at her wrists._

_Her exposed wrists._

_‘wait a minute,’ she thought. ‘I DO have something to write on.’ She then frowned. But I have never tried this, for all I know it could be incredibly dangerous.’ She then frowned at that thought. ‘what am I thinking, I’m Luz Noceda, I life for danger. My friend is in danger and I NEED to do something, and as this is my only option, I’ve at least got to give it a try.’ She then started to move her hands in such a way, that the tip of the pen in her right hand was touching her left wrist. After some struggle, she managed to do exactly that. ‘Success!’_

_She then heard that the guard had stopped walking. She quickly looked up._

_What she saw, horrified her._

_Rhodon was standing directly in front of Amity, barely any distance in between them. While he looked confident, Amity had her head down and was shaking from fear._

_The creep cupped his hand under Amity’s chin, lifting up her head. Luz could see the raw fear in her eyes, the determined spark which had always been there, was completely gone._

_Luz realized she had to get to work, fast!_

_She quickly started drawing, when she heard Rhodon speak._

_“Tisk, tisk, tisk. Just look at you.” he said. “so young, so innocent, so WEAK!”_

_Luz drew even faster._

_“you and your friend really thought you could beat us, but look where you are now, stuck on a wall, about to become my own personal plaything.”_

_She needed to work even faster. ‘dang it!’ she thought. ‘if it wasn’t for these ropes, I would have been done already!’_

_“and you know, a have had a really harsh day so far. So I think that I more than deserve this.”_

_Luz finished her glyph, but a small part of her mind prevented her from activating it. ‘what if, when I activate this, I’ll end up killing myself, I’m of no use to Amity if I’m a corpse.’ She gulped. ‘or it will cause an explosion which will blow up this entire alley. It will end up killing those two, but I don’t want Amity to die!’_

_Luz looked towards Amity, and saw the fear in her eyes. she was trembling. Not only that, tears were also streaming down her face._

_At that sight every single bit of doubt that Luz had evaporated completely, it was replaced by shear rage. She quickly tapped the glyph, which caused pain to erupt through her body._

_At the same time, Rhodon said: “but enough talking, lets begin.” He said with a devilish smirk._

_He grabbed Amity’s dress and she screamed in fear._

_Before he could do more, a flame suddenly erupted behind him. he quickly turned around with big eyes full of shock, Charles was also_

_As the flame dissipated, Luz could be seen standing in front of the wall she was trapped on, the major difference was that the ropes that had trapped her, were completely obliterated._

_The human meanwhile was looking at the ground, her face unable to be seen. Her entire body was like a plank, not moving. Her hands at her sides, bawled into fists._

_“well,” Rhodon said, having recovered from the shock. “Looks like you’re stronger then I thought. But that doesn’t matter, because we will beat you again and agai-…._ _shut up._ _” Luz interrupted him._

_Even though it was a whisper, it might as well have been a scream. Because it rang through the entire alley, echoing of into the distance._

_“what?!” Rhodon said with a scowl, while walking towards her, Charles by his side. “What did you say to me?!”_

_“_ _I said:_ _” Luz whispered._

**_“SHUT UP!!!”_ ** _At that her head shot upwards. Her face was the mask of raw rage. Her eyes ablaze. A fire had erupted behind her, reaching at least twice her height and five times her width._

_No one had ever seen Luz like that, the sheer murder in her eyes, the roughness of her voice. It scared Amity. If she didn’t know any better, she would say that Luz had somehow been possessed._

_Rhodon and Charles immediately flinched back, they hadn’t expected this. This kid, who at first was just some weak, slightly magic talented human, had turned into a living nightmare. A Nightmare fulled by her anger. And all of that anger,_

_Was pointed right at them._

_Luz meanwhile felt, strange. She had never felt like this before, and she kind of, liked it?_

_Luz spoke to the guards. “I have had enough with you two, I think it is finally time to put both of you, in your places.” A fireball had formed in her left hand.”_

_Rhodon meanwhile tried to appear brave. “you think that this little lightshow will scare us?!” he said with his chin up and chest puffed up. “you are still a human. You are nothing compared to us.” He drew a circle which shot a bolt of magical energy right at Luz._

_Luz barely flinched as she lifted her arm and threw her fireball. The fireball, as intended, hit the guard projectile, destroying it in the process._

_But it didn’t stop there,_

_Somehow the ball managed to not only destroy the magical bolt, but also managed to survive the impact. It was still heading right for the guards, with nothing in its way._

_Luckily for Rhodon, Charles was known for his reflexes and his fast spellcasting. He quickly managed to call up a barrier, stopping the fireball. But not without its costs, because when the fireball hit, it exploded, causing the barrier the shatter into a thousand pieces._

_The guards looked on in shock as the barrier broke. How did a human of all things have the magical power to shatter one of their barriers?!_

_Amity stared in shock as this happened. ‘How did Luz do that? Even I haven’t been able to break one yet, and I have been a witch for my whole live!’ she looked at her friend, Luz didn’t even move while all of this was happening, still looking towards the guards, her eyes aflame._

_Then, Luz spoke again._

_“you two have committed sins unfathomable. For that, you need to be punished by the flames of hell.” She said with a heated voice, creating what seemed like another fireball._

_“you surprised us the first time.” Rhodon responded. “that won’t happen again. Those little fireballs are nothing compared to what WE can do! And we would rather burn get burned alive then to lose to the likes of a human like YOU!”_

_Saying that had been a grave mistake._

_All that Luz responded with, was a dark smile. When Amity saw that, she felt shivers going down her spine._

_But she wasn’t he only one: Charles just straight up started shaking, his nerves getting to him. and while Rhodon tried to hide it, he too, felt a shiver, a cold wind, glide down his back._

_“That,” Luz started. “can be arranged.” She finished as she fired not a fireball, but a straight up MASSIVE STREAM OF FIRE RIGHT AT THE TWO GUARDS!_

_The two instantly paled at seeing the massive wall of fire, about two times Rhodon’s height, heading straight for them, destroying everything in its path._

_Charles quickly threw up another barrier, which covered both of them. And remembering what had happened to the last one, Rhodon quickly reinforced it with his own magic._

_The barrier acted like a cocoon, completely covering them, top to bottom, front to back. And as the fire hit it, it completely engulfed the barrier not leaving a single bit untouched. From the inside, it looked like the guards were swimming in the lakes of hell, fire everywhere they looked. And as the flames continued the bash into it, it started to crack._

_But one person wasn’t protected from the storm of flames._

_Amity._

_She was still stuck on the wall where the guards had left her._

_AND THE FLAMES WERE HEADING RIGHT FOR HER!_

_After it managed to get past the barrier, completely covering it in the process, there was no obstacle in its way that prevented it from reaching her. She looked on, with big eyes, as the fire was approaching her. Not stopping or even slowing down._

_She wanted to scream, scream to Luz that she had to stop._

_But she couldn’t._

_The fear had taken her words away, she couldn’t make a single sound._

_And so, she looked straight at the raging inferno and accepted her faith. She waited for the fire to reach her. ‘if I’m going to die, I’m looking death straight in the…eye? Flames? Smoke? Nah, flames sounds better.’_

_The heat was approaching._

_she out of instinct closed one eye, but just managed to keep the other one open, watching the fire approach her._

_At this moment the fire was so close, everything in Amity’s vison was the ground and the raging inferno. Because of the brightness, she was forced to close her one open eye._

_Then the flames reached her and…_

_…_

_She was fine?_

_Amity looked at the fire and saw.. that it was going straight up?!_

_The flames were heading straight up into the air, not hurting her even a little bit. The thing it DID do, was melt the slime trapping her. Because of the shear heat, it almost melted instantly, freeing Amity from the glue like slime._

_As Amity landed on her feet, seeing that the slime had stuck her to the wall with her feet of the ground, she immediately run to the side, getting a full view of everything that was going on._

_The guards seemed to still be trapped in their barrier, which was still engulfed with flames._

_Meanwhile Luz stood at the beginning of the inferno with her arms raised._

_‘that is probably what caused the fire to go up and mis me.’ Amity realized._

_She was about to walk towards Luz, when the human suddenly threw her arms downwards. Out of the corner of her eye, Amity saw that the top of the fire spiral that was going up into the sky, suddenly bend and started coming down to the ground,_

_Right on top of the barrier._

_The flames crashed into the barrier, creating even more heat. Amity could hear the barrier straining._

_“what’s wrong?” her friend suddenly called out. “can’t handle the heat?!” her voice sounded like she had lost every single bit of normal sense. “then you guys shouldn’t have messed with us.” All she seemed to care about was revenge. Her eyes still burning._

_When Amity looked closer, she saw that they were ACTUALLY on fire. Somehow, during all this, her eyes had turned into literal fireballs. ‘What is going on?!’ Amity asked herself. ‘Luz has never acted like this before! what made her snap like this?’ she looked at Luz, or more accurately, the source of the flames, her friends hand. ‘where does she get all of this power from all of a sudden?’_

_She her eyes looked all over her friend, not finding anything out off place. She was about to give up, when she saw a glow coming from her friend’s stretched arm. Her eyes widened. ‘is that.. some sort of glyph?!’ she asked herself. She got a little bit closer to Luz and saw that it was indeed, a glyph. ‘it is probably the fire glyph that Luz used a little while ago. But why did she draw it on her wrist?’ she then come to a realization. ‘could that be the thing that is causing her to go nuts?!’_

_Luz meanwhile, felt better then ever! All of this rage, all of this anger. It fueled her, gave her strength and powers she never though she could have. But now, she DID. And she LOVED it!_

_‘you know what, this isn’t enough punishment. Plus, this is getting pretty boring. I need some entertainment.’ She thought with a dark grin. At that moment she started closing her hand._

_The moment she started closing her hand, the stream of fire got less and less intense, until it eventually completely died out._

_As the inferno disappeared, Amity could see the state of the barrier the two guards had made to keep them alive. There were cracks everywhere, not a single spot was untouched. She realized that if Luz had kept the inferno going for just a bit longer, it would have definitely shattered._

_Inside of the cracked barrier cocoon, were Rhodon and Charles. Both sweating from the amount of effort they had to put up to keep themselves alive._

_The moment that they realized that the sea of flames was gone, they dropped the barrier. Charles immediately dropped on the ground from exhaustion. Rhodon meanwhile, stood up, and even though he was pretty shaken up by the experience, he tried to play it of cool. Like everything was fine._

_“I knew it.” Rhodon said. “I knew that you weren’t all that big of a thread as you made yourself look.” He scowled. “you’re still pathetic!”_

_Amity frowned. ‘seriously, how dumb is this guy?! He almost got burned to a crisp and he still thinks that he has the upper hand. If Luz wanted to, and she probably does right now, she can start another inferno and completely destroy him and his partner.’ Amity stopped that train of thought. ‘that sounds really weird, even in my head. Luz, of all people, killing someone? Practically impossible. Or at least, so I thought.’ She looked towards Luz with a sad frown. ‘Now? I’m not so sure.’_

_“HAHAHAHAHA!!!” Luz suddenly laughed. Amity flinched, it sounded… off. Like a maniac, who is playing with her prey._

_“even after almost dying, you still try to play it cool?” She said with a evil smirk. “that is a very special characteristic of yours, Lieutenant.”_

_She smiled. “ but your not the only one who can play it….COOL.” she lifted her right arm, showing of her wrist._

_Amity’s eyes grew big, because on her friend right wrist,_

_Was an ice glyph._

_Apparently, Luz had grabbed her pen while everyone was distracted and had drawn the glyph on her wrist behind her back. And since she knew the glyph like the back of her hand, she of course would have been able to do that incredibly fast._

_‘wait,’ the witchling thought. ‘if the fire glyph alone is causing Luz to go crazy, what will TWO GLYPHS DO?’ she then looked at the glyph._

_It wasn’t activated yet, luckily._

_Then Luz started talking again. “you know, normally I would say: fight fire with fire. But I don’t mind fighting fire with ice.” she said with a dark smirk._

_“What.. what do you mean?” Charles asked her. He was slowly getting back up, having recovered slightly._

_“what I mean,” Luz answered. “is that it is going to get way colder in here.” at the same time as she said that, she tapped her ice glyph. She immediately grunted in pain, bending over because of it, shaking because of the effects._

_Amity was about to walk towards her when she saw that the light coming from the fire glyph on Luz’s other wrist had started to get weaker, until it didn’t glow anymore, and the glyph started disappearing._

_The moment the glyph had completely vanished, Luz stopped shaking also immediately._

_“Luz? “ Amity asked. She quietly walked towards the human. She stopped right next to her._

_Amity grabbed her friends shoulder. “Luz?” she asked, full of concern for the girl. “are you oke?”_

_She just stood there, not moving. The only movement that was happening was the rise and fall of her chest._

_“ha!” Rhodon suddenly laughed. “looks like it was too much for her.” He smiled. “I knew she was weak, no matter what.” He turned towards Charles. “grab the witchling, I’ll finish of the human.”_

_Charles nodded as he started walking towards the witch._

_Amity saw him approach her. ‘I will not let me get captured, not again!’ she tried to keep him at bay with a fireball, but Charles threw up a barrier, blocking it._

_As he continued to advance on her, she kept throwing more and more projectiles at him, while all the while staying at Luz’s side._

_Sadly every single projectile got blocked by the barrier. They either bounced of or stopped existing entirely. He quickly managed to reach her, not stopping for anything._

_“No.” Amity pleaded as he reached them. “please, don’t.” She looked at her friend, she still hadn’t moved, like she was frozen in time itself._

_“sorry little witch.” He said, a little bit of remorse in his voice. As a precaution, he drew a circle, causing magical ropes to come from the ground, which immediately wrapped themselves around Amity. “but this is your punishment.”_

_He reached in from of Luz to grab the witchling. As he grabbed her shoulder, he discovered that that had been…_

_A Grave mistake!_

_Before he knew it, a sheer cold enveloped his hand, so cold that it burnt! He quickly pulled it back._

_“What is….?” He said as he inspected his hand. The hand was completely covered in a thick layer of ice, making it unable for Charles to use it until the ice was completely melted._

_As he looked for what could have possibly caused that, he saw that the human had stretched out her right arm, her hand being at the exact spot where his hand was a few seconds ago._

_“You should have done that.” Came from the human. But it sounded of. Both to Amity and the guards._

_It definitely wasn’t Luz’s normal voice, that was sure. But it also wasn’t her hate filled voice from just a minute ago. It was… different._

_“You guys are incredibly dumb, you know that right?” she spoke again. “I mean, I give you two time to leave us alone, and you still don’t take me up on my offer. Even after everything I already did to you two.” She sighed. “Seems like I still need to teach you guys a lesson.”_

_At that she lifted her head, and what Amity saw was almost just as scary as the rage filled face that Luz had when she was using the fire glyph._

_The weird thing was, was that it wasn’t the intensity of a certain emotion that made it scary._

_It was the lack of emotion._

_Luz’s face was stone cold. No emotion could be seen anywhere. And when Amity looked into her eyes all she saw was some inky blackness, like whatever emotions Luz had, had all died inside of her._

_‘well, at least she doesn’t have fireballs for eyes anymore, just like the heat in her voice, her eyes have… cooled… off’_

_Amity then realized why her friend’s voice sounded so off. There was no emotion. Her voice was ice cold. It kind of freaked her out._

_‘okay,’ she thought. ‘calm down. When all of this is over, Luz will probably turn back into her lovable self.’ She blushed slightly at the thought. ‘she has to.’_

_That was the moment that Rhodon decided to let his voice be heard._

_“Oh yeah?! Well, maybe we didn’t want to be cowards like you and your friend!”_

_“Hmm. Maybe.” Luz reacted, not a sliver of emotion in her voice. As she spoke, she looked the guard right in the eyes. “Maybe we were cowards, but at least WE had the brains to get away from a fight we knew we couldn’t win. At least, in comparison to you two, we knew when to fight and when to flee.”_

_“Oh yeah, punk?!” Rhodon called out. “how about THIS!” at that, he threw a fireball right at Luz._

_As the fireball come flying at her, Luz didn’t even move or flinch._

_Amity looks on in shock as the fireball was closing in on Luz…._

_When it suddenly hit a pillar of ice._

_Out of nowhere, a pillar of ice had erupted from the ground, blocking the shot. The fireball was destroyed, while the ice didn’t even have a scratch._

_“Hm” Luz reacted. “I really expected something better from a lieutenant from the emperor’s coven’s guard” She lifted her right arm, and opened her hand. Suddenly, a bunch of cold air started flowing from her hand. “Let me show you how its done.” She said as she nonchalantly shot what seemed to be a ice projectile right at her opponent._

_As Rhodon wasn’t as fast as Charles, he quickly grabbed one of the barrels, and held it in front of him like a shield. As the ice bullet hit, he was almost send flying because of the impact, and when he looked at the barrel to see in what kind of status it was in, he was that more then half of the barrel had been frozen in ice._

_He gulped._

_“Not a very nice thought, is it?”_

_He looked over towards Luz._

_“The thought that that could have been you.” Luz said with her frozen voice._

_“Well, it isn’t.”_

_“True. But it could have been.”_

_Rhodon growled. He was obviously done with this. “enough!” he shouted. “this has gone on for long enough, it is time that this ends!” he said as he prepared another spell._

_“Agreed.” Suddenly another ice bullet was fired right at him. luckily for him, he had a projectile ready and managed to destroy it, causing a cold mist cloud to form._

_As the mist was still up, a weird sound could be heard, like something solid taking form. When the mist had cleared enough, Rhodon got the scare of his life._

_Right in front of his face,_

_Was Luz’s stone cold face._

_Apparently, the sound that was heard was the sound of the ice forming so that Luz could be at eye level with him._

_“you know.” The teen said. “I really wanted to give you guys a chance.” She sighed. “looks like not everybody deserves a second chance.”_

_Rhodon wanted to push her away or shoot her with a spell,_

_But he couldn’t!_

_He couldn’t move. It was like he had turned to stone or, more accurately, ice. Because he felt a great cold wash over his body, freezing him in place._

_“what’s wrong lieutenant? Feeling a little bit cold?” Luz said, still emotionless._

_“you remember what I did to your friend’s hand?”_

_Rhodon nodded._

_“well, lets just say that, it is going to get a lot colder for you.”_

_Amity and Charles could only watch, as Luz laid her hand on top of the guard’s forehead. Ice suddenly started to from on the guard around the spot where the human hand was._

_Before they could fully register what was going on, Rhodon had been completely encased in a big block of ice, frozen in place._

_When the block had fully formed, Luz casually stepped off her own piece of ice, which she used to get eye to eye with Rhodon, and started walking towards Amity._

_As she passed Charles, she said with no remorse. “you better get moving and take your friend with you. if you don’t get him free soon, he will die instantly.”_

_The man’s eyes immediately grew big as he ran towards his partner._

_When Luz reached Amity, her behavior did turn back into the old Luz, as Amity expected. Instead she stayed her cold self._

_“Follow me Miss Blight.” She said._

_As Amity started walking after Luz, she frowned. ‘Miss Blight? Luz has never called me that!’_

_as they walked out of the alley, onto one of the bigger streets, Amity asked: “Luz? Are you okay?”_

_“I’ve never felt better Miss Blight.” The human answered with her monotone voice._

_“are you sure? Because you’re acting kind of off at the moment and- I assure you Miss Blight, that I am perfectly fine, nothing is wrong with me.” Luz interrupted her._

_“okay, if you say so.”_

_They walked in complete silence for a while, going through the streets of Bonesborough. Most of the beings were still out on the streets, so they sometimes had to squeeze themselves through some crowds._

_As they passed another crowd, Amity had enough of the silence. She was also getting nervous again. ‘where is Luz bringing me? She’s not bringing me home, seeing that my house is the opposite way.’_

_“hey, uhm, Luz?”_

_“Yes, Miss Blight?” Luz answered, still with a cold voice. But something about it had changed. Not in sound, but something was different. But because of the many beings going around the market and the constant noise, Amity couldn’t figure out what._

_“Not that I don’t trust you or anything, but where are we heading exactly? Because I need to be home at a certain time otherwise my parents will completely flip out.” They were approaching the edge of the town, all that lay behind it was forest._

_“We’re heading to a save place, a place where the guards won’t find either you or me.” The human responded. “And about you going home,” she continued. “you won’t be going home ever again.”_

_They had just left the streets behind them, walking closer to the woods. Which was good, seeing Amity’s reaction._

_“WHAT!!” she shouted. Luz didn’t even flinch._

_The witchling grabbed the human’s shoulder and turned her friend towards her, confusion and a hint of anger in her voice and eyes._

_“What do you mean with, ‘you won’t be going home ever again’?!” she yelled. “WHY NOT!!”_

_“Because,” Luz answered coolly. “that is the first place where they will look for you. they know who you are, so they know where to look.” She said. “its just not save for you anymore. That why.” At that, she turned and started walking again._

_“But..but…” Amity didn’t know what to say. Luz was right, even though she really didn’t want her to be right about it, she completely was. Amity was now known as a criminal, an escapee, a breaker of the law. She wouldn’t be save at her home._

_Seeing no other way out, she sighed and continued following Luz again._

_As they reached the forest, Luz didn’t stop. She just continued walking like there wouldn’t be fearless predators who would like a snack._

_Amity? She wasn’t that confident._

_“Luz?” Amity called out. “are you sure about this?”_

_“As sure as I can be Miss Blight.”_

_Amity huffed as she started walking again. ‘Miss Blight. If you weren’t Luz, I would tell you where you can shove your ‘Miss Blight’. She huffed again. ‘it makes me sound old, like mother.’_

_They continued walking for some while, when Amity really noticed that Luz knew what she was doing._

_‘I haven’t been this deep into the forest all that much. Most of the times that I was, it was while visiting Luz at the…’_

_“Luz.” The human turned towards her. “are you bringing me to the Owl House?!” Amity exclaimed._

_“indeed.” Human answered. “right now it is the safest place in Bonesborough, and if anyone tried to abduct you there, they would not only have to deal with me, but also the Owl Lady herself.” She said as they kept walking deeper into the forest._

_The rest of the walk was spent in silence. It wasn’t very eventful, luckily. Amity would rather not have to fight of a predator probably three times her size._

_But eventually, they arrived at on open path. And at the end of that path was their destination:_

_The Owl House._

_Amity stopped for a moment. For all the times that she has been here, she had barely paid any attention to the house itself. And even though, it would be her first choice to life there, it did have its own sort of charm. It may look like it is uncomfortable inside, but when actually inside, it felt like a home away from home. Sure, the owl in the door could be incredibly annoying, but besides that, it was all that bad._

_She then realized that Luz had just continued walking towards their destination, not stopping for anything. The witchling started running to catch up to her._

_Shortly after she had caught up to her friend, they arrived at the Owl House._

_And sadly, the door owl was awake._

_“hey Luz and friend!” Hooty yelled. “what have you been doing? Do you want ot know what Iiiii have done all day? Well, first there was this bug and…”_

_Normally Luz tells him to stop talking, but now, she just ignored him completely. She just opened the door and walked inside, like he didn’t even exist._

_‘I wish I was able to do that.’ Amity thought._

_As she followed the human inside, she saw the Luz had walked towards the couch and sat down with her hand on her lap. Amity closed the door, silencing Hooty. Seeing nothing else to do, she sat down next to Luz._

_“soooo, what now?” she asked._

_“now we wait until Edalyn enters the living room._

_‘Edalyn? Okay, seriously, what is wrong with her. She has never ever called Eda that.’ She looked down at Luz’s hands. ‘could it really be…?’_

_“Heya kid.” She looked up. The Owl Lady had just walked into the room, wearing her red dress and her high heel boots. So far, she probably only noticed Luz._

_“Hello, Eda.” Amity said._

_“oh, hello…… Famity was it?”_

_Amity sighed. “It’s Amity, ma’am.”_

_“right, Amity. I knew I was close, I’m getting better though, aren’t I?” she said with a laugh._

_All the witchling responded with was a nod. Eda frowned._

_“sheesh, what happened to you two? You look like you got hit by egg-line 5.” She said with a grin._

_“now is not the time Edalyn.”_

_Eda looked at Luz, completely confused. “Edalyn? Luz, did you hit your head or something?! You never call me that.” She exclaimed. “are you okay?” A hint of concern had crept into her voice._

_“I’m fine Edalyn, it’s just no time for funny business.” The human answered. “some things are more important than entertainment.”_

_“something like what, exactly?” the Owl Lady asked. Dully noting that Luz’s voice as well as her behavior were off._

_“like the fact that Miss Blight and I were assaulted by two guardsmen of the Emperor’s coven’s.” Luz said with a monotone voice._

_“WAIT, WHAT!!!?” Eda exclaimed. “what do you mean with assaulted.” She then frowned in confusion. “also, Miss Blight?!” she said as she looked at Amity, who just looked at her with worry in her eyes._

_“what I mean Edalyn, is that both Miss Blight and I were assaulted by two guards in an alley at the market. I don’t think that that is very hard to understand.” Luz reacted._

_“okay, I get it!” the witch said. She then thought of something. “Luz, could you maybe make something to drink for the three of us, it would make all of this go a lot easier.”_

_“sure.” The human said while she stood up and made her way towards the kitchen._

_When Luz left the room, Eda immediately turned towards Amity._

_“Okay missy, what have you done to Luz?!”_

_“I didn’t do anything! Why would you even immediately think that I am then cause of this?! Do you think I’m comfortable being called Miss Blight? NO! I’m very much not!” she sighed. “I would rather have our normal Luz back, instead of what she is now.”_

_Now it was Eda’s turn to sigh. “okay, yeah, you’re right. But what else could have done this to Luz?”_

_Amity at first drew a blank, but then she remembered her earlier suspicions. “I may have an idea.”_

_“spill it.”_

_“I think that the cause of her weird behavior is the ice glyph on her wrist, which is highly probable, seeing that- wait hold up! Ice glyph?!” the Owl Lady interrupted her._

_Amity nodded. “right now, she has an ice glyph drawn on her right wrist. That could be the cause of her cold behavior. I mean, as I said, it makes sense. While she was Using a fire glyph, she was like a raging she-demon.”_

_Eda laughed. “Luz? A raging demon?! Impossible.” She then saw the serious look on the witchling’s face. “oh, you’re serious?” Amity nodded. “huh, wow. Never thought I’d see the day.”_

_“I think that if we manage to remove it, she may turn back to normal.”_

_“possible, but how do we do that? Any ideas?”_

_“well, she wrote the glyphs with ink from her pen, so that should mean that it is able to be washed off.”_

_Eda shrugged. “eh, Its worth a try.”_

_When Luz came out of the kitchen, carrying a tray with a can of water and three glasses, she walked into the living room, she saw Eda and Amity sitting on the couch talking to each other. “it may be rude to ask, but what are you two talking about?”_

_The two didn’t hear Luz enter the room, and both got spooked. Eda jumped slightly, while Amity let out a yelp._

_“sorry for scaring the two, I was just intrigued.”_

_Amity quickly waved it off. “no need to be sorry. Its also kind of our own fault for not noticing you earlier.”_

_“yeah,” Eda confirmed. ”what she said.”_

_“hmm, okay.” Luz said, slightly suspicious of their behavior._

_As she put down the tray on the table, she sat down on the couch, hand on her lap, with Amity to her right, and Eda to her left._

_“I didn’t know what the two of you wanted, so I just got a big can of water. I hope that that is alright.”_

_“its fine Luz, thank you.” Amity responded. “anyway, you asked what Eda and I were talking about. We were talking about you actually.”_

_“me? Why?”_

_“well you see Luz, you have been acting kind of off lately, and we are concerned about you.” she said as she grabbed a glass of water._

_“why would you?” Luz asked. “as I told you earlier, I have never felt better Miss Blight.”_

_“yes, I know. But….”_

_Luz sighed. “could you please drop the subject Miss Blight, we have more important stuff to talk about.”_

_“you’re right.” Amity said. ‘she’s right, we should probably drop it for now. Luz would rather not get back to it though if her ice cold sigh is anything to go by.’ She paused that thought. ‘wait, what?’ she looked closer as Luz breathed._

_Indeed, cold air seemed to be coming from her mouth whenever she breathes out._

_‘so instead of fireball eyes, she has a below-zero temperature breath. That is both interesting AND concerning.’ She quickly came to a decision. ‘We need to act, and fast.’_

_She tapped Eda on her shoulder. When the older witch looked at her, Amity nodded. Eda nodded as well._

_At that Amity dropped her glass, spilling water over Luz’s lap. “Oops. I’m so sorry Luz!”_

_“Don’t worry Miss Blight, accidents happen.” Luz reacted._

_“Here,” Eda said. “ let me clean that up for you.” She grabbed Luz’s hands._

_“Its not that big of a deal Edalyn.”_

_Eda smiled. “Oh believe me,” she said as she quickly drew a spell circle around the hands, trapping them in the process. “I insist.”_

_“what are you two doing?” Luz asked, somehow still with an ice cold tone._

_“We’re sorry Luz, but this has to happen.” Amity said as also grabbed a piece of cloth._

_Before she started with rubbing of the glyph, Eda put a spell on the piece of cloth. Amity looked at her confused._

_“it’s a cleaning spell, basically the thing that it does is that the thing it is used on will be more helpful.”_

_“start scrubbing.” Eda said. “I’ll hold her from doing anything._

_The witchling Immediately got to work, trying desperately to erase the glyph from the human wrist. At first, it didn’t seem to help, but then-_

_“Look!” Amity exclaimed. “ It’s fading!” She was right, the glyph was indeed fading away. She started scrubbing faster._

_It at first didn’t really have any effect on Luz. She just sat there, looking at the witchling.”_

_But then she started to twitch, it was barely noticeable at first, but it then became more severe. “could you please stop what you are doing.” She asked. “Its making me feel uncomfortable.”_

_“Not happening Luz.” Amity reacted as she continued scrubbing away at the glyph._

_At this point the glyph was about halfway gone, and Luz’s twitching had intensified._

_“Just let me go Eda, same goes for you Miss Blight.”_

_“no Luz, we are not letting you-… wait.” She then said to the older witch. “she called you Eda! Its working!” she frowned. “but she is still calling me Miss Blight, so we are not there yet._

_As Amity continued, Luz’s reaction changed. Instead of just twitching, she started winching. She looked more and more like she was in pain._

_“just stop.” Luz said, a strain in her voice._

_Neither of the witches reacted._

_As Amity continued with her job, she saw that cold wind started to gather together above Luz’s hand. ‘That can’t be good. I have to finish this, and fast! Before Luz does something she will regret.’_

_The longer it took for the ice glyph to fade, the more ice started to gather on Luz’s hand._

_Luz also began moving more and more, winching in pain and sometimes even whimpering. Until she suddenly made a sporadic movement with her hand, sending the ball of ice flying towards Amity’s head._

_When it hit, it didn’t hurt. It was cold, sure. And uncomfortable, but turns out that it was just snow, not ice. But Amity could have sworn that it had been ice just a second ago._

_She then heard Luz mumble something, like she was trying to tell her something important._

_“what is it, Luz?” Amity asked, a hint of worry in her voice._

_“Help…me.”_

_“what?” Amity asked. “I couldn’t quite hear it. Could you please repeat that?”_

_“Help me. Please. Please, Amity.”_

_This time, Amity heard it clear as day. She recognized that voice. It was Luz. HER Luz. She blushed slightly at the thought._

_She responded. “don’t worry, we’re doing everything we can to help you.”_

_Eda looked at her confused. “who are you talking to? There is no one else here!”_

_“It’s Luz, she’s coming back!”_

_Eda eyes widened. “well, what are you doing sitting ducks! Continue scrubbing!”_

_The witchling nodded as she got back to work. Sadly Luz’s reactions weren’t over, she still whimpered at certain moments and even some tears had started to form._

_Everything was going right, until.._

_The glyph started glowing._

_Suddenly the glyph started giving of a bright blue glow, and Luz started screaming in agony. She jumped of the couch and put her head in between her hands, while screaming at the heavens._

_“LUZ!” both witches called out._

_But Luz didn’t hear them, all she heard was her own voice, echoing in her own head. It was agony, the sheer pain! It felt like something was being torn from her body, from her very being. For her, it felt like she had been screaming for hours, days, even weeks._

_And then suddenly, it stopped. Her screaming seized, her body exhausted. And so, she did the only thing she could._

_Amity and Eda both watched as Luz’s screaming stopped. But before any of them could walk up to her, the human collapsed on the ground._

_Amity gasped and Eda quickly hurried over to her student. The Owl Lady checked Luz’s pulse._

_“she’s alive.” Eda said with a relieved sigh. “she’s just unconscious.”_

_Amity let out the breath she was holding. “any idea when she’ll wake up?”_

_“It could be in a few minutes, a few hours, or even days.” The women said as she got back up. “but one thing is certain: we’ll be there when she wakes up.”_

_Amity nodded. “what shall we do in the meantime, because I don’t want to tell what happened without Luz.”_

_“fully understandable, it was probably not a nice experience.”_

_Amity shivered. “nope.”_

_“hmmm. How about we lay Luz on the couch and go grab something to drink in the kitchen.”_

_“sure.” Amity responded._

_After they laid Luz down on the couch, with a cushion and blanket, they made their way to the kitchen._

_“and while we’re at it you can also tell me about the obvious crush you have on my student.”_

_“WAIT, WHAT!?”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow, 10K. Longest chapter yet.  
> It took hours upon hours to write this (and originally the flashback was supposed to be ONE chapter, and now it is devided in three parts.)
> 
> we'll return to the main story, probably after chapter 5.
> 
> I also don't know when upcoming chapters are coming out seeing that school is starting again very soon. soooooo, yeah
> 
> also, episode 17 was amazing. I laughed my ass of each time that Amity had a Bi-panic moment. (its confirmed by Dana, Amity is Bi, Not a Lesbian ( which I wouldn't have minded at all.))
> 
> anyway, enough talk.  
> please tell me what I did right and what I can improve.  
> What did you think of Luz in this chapter? Too much? personally, I don't really think so.  
> personally i think that this is my best chapter yet, but I want to hear you oppinions.
> 
> Untill next time,
> 
> Gr Elementalwriter.


	5. New Home.

_Chapter 5:_

_“Uuuugh.” Luz groaned. “What happened?” she asked herself._

_As she looked around, she saw that she was in the Owl House, laying on the couch. She also realized, that she had a major headache. It was like someone had taken a jackhammer to her skull._

_‘seriously, what happened?’ she thought to herself. The last thing she remembers is being stuck on one of the walls in the alley, pain, and-….”Amity!”_

_Luz called her friend’s name. ‘What happened to her? Did she escape? Did Eda find us just in time? Did I get knocked unconscious and was I found by someone?’_

_Luz then heard shuffling coming from the kitchen, followed by rapid footsteps. When Luz looked up she saw Amity and Eda enter the room._

_“Luz! You’re awake!” Amity said. “what’s wrong?”_

_“I’m…I’m fine Amity, just confused.” ‘And worried that something had happened to you.’_

_“what do you mean?” Eda asked her._

_“It’s just, the last thing I remember is me being stuck on a wall in the alley where we were attacked, and the guard advancing on you, and then just a big amount of pain. For the rest everything else is just really fuzzy.”_

_“hmmm” Eda responded. “seeing what happened, I’m not really amazed by this. It obviously was heavy on both your body and your mind, and seeing that you’re still recovering, I think it might take a uncertain amount of time until you get those memories back.”_

_“Any idea how long that will take?”_

_“as I said, that is uncertain. It could be minutes, hours, days, maybe even weeks. There is also the chance that you’ll never get them back.”_

_Luz nodded. “okay, not very reassuring, but helpful. But, do you maybe know what happened?”_

_“Kid, I have NO idea what happened. If you really want to know, you need to ask your friend.” The Owl Lady said as she nodded her head towards Amity._

_Luz looked at Amity, expecting a explanation. But she remained silent, not saying a single thing._

_“Amity?” Luz called out. “Are you okay.”_

_The witchling in question was deep in thought from the moment that she had calmed down from the shock that Luz was awake. ‘I’m so happy she’s awake. I wouldn’t know what I’d do without her. She needs to stop worrying me like that. If this becomes a normal thing, that girl is going to end up giving me a heart attack.’_

_“Amity!”_

_The witchling shook her head, leaving her thoughts for later. “Hm? What is it Luz?”_

_“I asked you if you could tell me what happened in the alleyway.” Luz said, as she looked down. “But if you don’t want to, I understand.”_

_Amity shook her head. “no, it’s fine.” She said. “I was just lost in my thoughts, so, don’t worry about it.”_

_Luz nodded understandingly._

_Amity continued. “but you wanted to know what happened?”_

_“yeah. I barely remember anything.”_

_“okay, what DO you remember?” she said as she sat down next to the human._

_“well, as I said earlier, the last thing that I clearly remember is being stuck to one of the walls in the alleyway, the guard advancing on you.” she gulped at the memory. “and then just pain. Everything that happened after that is fuzzy and unclear.” Luz then chuckled. “for all I know, we had a thee party in animal pj’s” she said with a smile._

_Amity blushed at the thought, imagining it. Luz in her otter pj and herself in the cat one. It looked absolutely adorable._

_As the blush on her face died down, she said: “well, I can assure you that THAT didn’t happen.”_

_‘not that I would mind.’_

_Luz laughed again. “I’m just joking with you, Ams.”_

_“I know, I know.” The green haired girl said, while awkwardly rubbing the back of her neck._

_That was the moment that Eda clapped her hands, drawing the attention of both teens. “okay, you two lovebirds, are you both done?!” she said with a grin. “we have more important stuff to talk about then you two flirting while having a thee party.”_

_Both girls immediately started blushing, and looked away from each other._

_“Edaaaa!” said the human._

_Amity coughed into her fist, trying to conceal her blush. As it faded away, she looked at Luz again. “she’s right.” she then glared at the older women. “even though the way she says it is inappropriate.” She then focused back on Luz. “we do have more important stuff to talk about.”_

_“indeed.” Eda said as she grabbed a chair and sat down. “you two need to explain to me what happened in town, because Luz left this morning completely fine, and she returns practically possessed.”_

_Luz paled. “Possessed?!”_

_Amity lay a comforting hand in the human shoulder. “not actual possession, but it was close enough.”_

_“that doesn’t help at all!”_

_“sorry,” Amity said. I’m not really good at comforting people.”_

_“as much as I like to watch you two like this,” Eda called out. “can you two just tell me what happened!?”_

_“sure.” The witch answered. “maybe Luz should start, because even I don’t know why she was there in the first place.”_

_“well,” Luz said. “you remember the fireball that I threw towards the guards?” Amity nodded. “I was actually looking for you because I wanted to show it to you.”_

_Amity smirked. “You did end up showing it, just not in the way that you thought.”_

_“indeed.” The human admitted. “anyway, I was walking through the alley to avoid the statues of the Emperor, when suddenly I heard a scream. I immediately rushed towards it, and saw you being…. Captured, by the guards.”_

_“hmmm, sounds reasonable.” Amity reacted._

_“okay, but what happened next?” Eda asked._

_The human teen looked towards Amity. “maybe Amity should tell that, seeing that she has full memory of it.”_

_The girl in question shook her head. “Nah, you can just keep telling the story until the part where you don’t remember anything. Then I shall take it over.”_

_Luz shrugged. “okay, sure.” She turned towards Eda. “so, there I was, looking at Amity being arrested by two guards. I knew something was of about them, so I stayed. And I made the right choice to do so, because….”_

_And so, Luz told the main part of the story, of her jumping out from her hiding spot and Amity and her fighting against the guards. While she talked, Amity started shivering, feeling unpleasant by the memories that were recalled. Luz as a response, laid her arm across the girl’s back, holding her in comfort. She continue talking describing everything in detail, until she arrived at the crucial part._

_“and all I remember is anger as Rhodon started approaching Amity. Then all I remember clearly is pain and then waking up here, on the couch.”_

_“hmmm.” Eda responded. “that’s heavy stuff kiddo, that’s for sure.” She sighed. “its disgusting that the Emperor allows people like that into the guard.”_

_Luz nodded in agreement. Amity meanwhile was completely silent, slightly pale. The memories, even with Luz comforting her, caused her to feel unwell. Luz noticed and said: “Hey Amity.” The girl looked at her. “we can leave it at this if you want.”_

_“no. no, I’m fine.” Amity responded. “Eda and you need to know the whole story.” She sighed. “even though the experience wasn’t all that great.”_

_“what do you mean? You were the one who kicked their butts, weren’t you?”_

_“actually Luz,” The witch admitted. “You, were the one who defeated them, not me.”_

_“me? But how?”_

_“wait.” Eda said. “Luz, innocent naïve-“hey!”-Luz beat two guards?! Now this I need to hear!”_

_“yes Eda, Luz was the one who beat them, and to answer your question Luz, I fairly sure it had to do with the glyph that you had drawn in your wrists.”_

_“wait. What?” The human said._

_“yeah. But to make it able for you two to understand it fully, let me start from the beginning.”_

_Amity told what happened, she told about the fire, the hatred, the raging inferno, her getting freed, Luz using the ice glyph, her short fight with the guards and then ended with the human freezing Rhodon in a block of ice._

_“and that is how we won and managed to escape. The problem, though, was that you didn’t turn back into your normal self. You then lead us towards the Owl House. You also continued to call me Miss Blight, and you called Eda Edalyn. Luckily we managed to remove the glyph, or at least partly, because then it started glowing and you started screaming in pain. Then you collapsed on the ground.”_

_Eda whistled. “I knew that what happened wasn’t something to take lightly, but damn.” She nudged Luz, grinning all the while. “you really thought those fools a lesson they wouldn’t forget.”_

_But Luz didn’t respond._

_She had visibly paled to the point that she looked like a ghost._

_“Luz?” asked in concern. “are you okay?”_

_Luz meanwhile had started remembering some of the memories. Small fragments had popped up while Amity talked._

_Her tapping the fire glyph, bursting free, the storm of fire she had unleashed, her tapping the ice glyph, freezing Charles’s wrist, and freezing Rhodon. And the feelings and thoughts that she had at those moment; anger, the need for revenge, the need to punish the guilty, the want to show no mercy._

_But the main thing that stuck to her however, were the faces. The face of Charles when she broke his barrier with a fireball, and when she had frozen his hand in ice, to not even mention Rhodon’s face before she freezes him. sure, he was a jerk, but she could have potentially killed him!_

_But the face that stay in her mind the most, was Amity’s. the sheer fear that had radiated from her._

_The fear, that she created._

_‘I could have hurt her, killed her! Because of me, she was in grave danger!’ she frowned._

_‘I’m dangerous.’_

_“Luz?! Luz!”_

_The human snapped out of it, and looked straight at the one who had called for her._

_Amity asked: “Luz! What happened? Are you okay?”_

_Luz nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just that I just remembered some of the moments that happened, which was probably caused by you talking about it.”_

_“Which moments?”_

_“The less then pleasant ones. Basically it comes down to me destroying everything and me finishing the fight.”_

_“yeah, those are not your best moments, are they.” Amity joked, trying to lighten the mood._

_“Nah, not really.” Luz said with a small smile. She then frowned again. “but it did make me realize something.”_

_“made you realize what?” Eda asked._

_“I realized that I am incredibly dangerous to everybody around me. That I’m a threat.”_

_A short silence of disbelieve hung in the room. Until…_

_“ **Don’t say that!!** ”_

_Both Luz and Eda looked at Amity. “don’t say that! You’re a lot of things, but you are NOT dangerous. You are NOT a threat!”_

_“but, I could have hurt you! I froze someone into a block of ice!”_

_“but you didn’t. I mean, you did freeze Rhodon, but you did not hurt me. You actually freed me from the slime. You made it able for us to escape.”_

_“But still….”_

_“No, Luz. The glyphs made you act like you did. You did nothing wrong. And before you say: ‘but I activated the first one.’ True, but you did it to protect me. You also did it in self-defense.”_

_“even though I don’t like it,” Eda said. “but I agree with Famity- “Amity.”- Amity over here. You didn’t do anything wrong. And even the things that you did when under influence of the glyphs were technically in self-defense. Extreme self-defense, but self-defense none the less.”_

_“maybe, but the Emperor won’t think of it that way.”_

_Eda scoffed. “screw the Emperor. He doesn’t deserve to rule, even King would be a better ruler then him.”_

_“I can’t confirm or deny that.” Luz said with a smile._

_“the point is,” Amity spoke. “is that you didn’t do anything wrong. And even though the Emperor and the guards think that you did, we know the truth and we’ll help you in any way we can.”_

_Eda nodded. “indeed. We will not let you go through this alone, kid.” She said with an encouraging smile._

_Luz teared up slightly, still smiling all the while. “Thanks guys. That means a lot to me.”_

_Amity smiled, happy to see that Luz was smiling again. “no worries, everything will go back to normal eventually,” she then sighed “besides your not the only one who suffered from the confrontation with the guards.”_

_Luz nodded understandingly. “yeah, the memories must be pretty traumatizing for you. It’s going to take a while to heal from it.”_

_“that’s probably true, and I’m not really looking forward to it.” The witchling frowned. “but that is not what I’m talking about.”_

_Luz looked at her, confused. “I… don’t understand.”_

_“me neither kid.” Eda spoke. “you probably need to explain what you mean.”_

_Again, Amity let out a sigh. “When me and…. Luz were walking into the woods, she told me that I wouldn’t be able to go home, that I wouldn’t be save there.”_

_“Uhm, Amity, I was still under influence of the ice glyph at that moment. You probably shouldn’t take it so seriously.”_

_“I know, it’s just, under the influence of the glyph you were so, serious. You didn’t joke around and you didn’t laugh or anything like that.” Amity threw up her arms. “as I said earlier, You called me and Eda, Miss Blight and Edalyn. Something you would never do. She huffed. “and something that I don’t want you to do. It’s just weird.”_

_The witchling shook her head to get back on track. “anyway, when under influence of the ice glyph, you were dead serious the entire time! You wouldn’t lie about something like that.”_

_“Did I tell you, why, it wouldn’t be safe?”_

_“Actually, yeah, you did. I demanded that you would tell me why, but still, you did give reasons. And they were very accurate.”_

_“Reasons like what?” the human asked._

_Eda meanwhile, just sat there. Listening._

_Amity looked down to the ground with a sad look. “you told me that I wouldn’t be safe at home because that would be the first place where the guards would look for me. And there are probably more reasons, but only that one was needed to convince me. You told me why you were bringing me here, which was mainly because this would probably be the safest place in all of Bonesborough.”_

_“that’s very true.” Eda spoke. “your house would indeed be the first place where they would look for you, and this IS the best hiding place in Bonesborough.”_

_Luz started to squeal. “does this mean what I think it means?!”_

_Both witches looked at Luz, both confused._

_“Amity can live with us!” The human exclaimed, her arms up in the air._

_“WHAT?!” the witches called out._

_“I mean, It makes sense.” Luz reasoned. “she can’t go back home, AND this is the best hiding spot from the guards.” ‘and then I can keep you save at all times.’ She stopped that thought, noticing the weird feeling that arose. So she it and build a house on top of it._

_“Luz,” Amity said, still looking at the ground, sadness in her voice. “as much as I would love to, I can’t.”_

_“what? But why?!”_

_“because, I don’t want to be a burden to you and Eda. I’m just something that increases the chance of Eda getting captured.” she sighed. “besides, I think it’s just better that I leave Bonesboroough entirely, just to be sure, so no one else is in danger because of me.”_

_The girl looked like she was about to cry. So much had happened, and now she was going to leave Bonesborough behind. The place where she grew up, her home._

_She suddenly felt a hand on each shoulder. She looked up, and saw it was Luz, who looked her in the eyes with confidence. “Amity,” she spoke. “I want you to understand something.” She then put one hand under the witchling chin, lifting her head so they could talk face to face. “you are NOT, a burden. You’re not some risk of getting us captured. You’re my friend, one of my best friends in fact, and I am not letting you get away that easily.”_

_“b-but..But,” Amity stuttered. “I started this whole thing, it’s my fault!”_

_“no, you didn’t.”_

_“yes, I did!”_

_“No, you didn’t.”_

_“Yes, I did.”_

_“NO, you didn’t.”_

_“YES, I DID!_ _I broke the rules! I caused the guards to act! I did that, not you, or Eda, or your little demon friend.” She was sobbing now. “We’re in this right now because of me! It’s, my, stupid, fau-” **AMITY!** ” Luz quickly interrupted, she wasn’t at all happy that her friend threated herself like this._

_“It’s NOT YOUR FAULT!” she almost shouted. Amity winched at the sudden volume. Luz noticed this and took deep breaths to calm down. When she had calmed down enough, she spoke again. “It is not, and I repeat, it’s NOT, your fault.”_

_“But-“No buts Amity. Let me explain, okay?” Amity nodded._

_“okay, listen closely. Yes, you did break the rules, which made the guards react. But think about it this way: the rules are practically so incredibly stupid that it’s almost impossible to NOT break them. And besides, seeing how they acted, I think that they were probably going for you anyway. Which when I say that out loud, sound incredibly creepy.” Luz said as she frowned. “and otherwise they would have probably gone after someone else, and they probably would be able to escape like we did, and if you think about it like THAT, you technically saved someone else.”_

_She then huddled close to Amity, draping her arm behind the girl’s back. “you’re not a risk or a inconvenience or anything like that.” She then looked Amity straight in the eyes with a proud smile. “you’re a hero. Not only for technically saving someone else from this faith, but also because, even when it looked like we were doomed, you kept fighting, for both you and me.”_

_“but,” she then said. “most of all..” she then suddenly gave Amity a big hug. “your my best friend.”_

_Amity had started to tear up, but when Luz gave that hug, she could hold it anymore. She openly started sobbing, in both sadness and happiness. Sadness about what happened, and happiness because there were still people who believed in her. And that being Luz of all people, was a massive bonus._

_“Thanks *sniff*, Thanks Luz.” She said when she had calmed down, eyes still wet. Small remnants of the tears were still on her cheeks._

_“no problem, Ams.” The human said as she wiped the tears away. “That’s what friends are for.”_

_The two looked at the other, neither breaking away. Until,_

_*Crunch*_

_The girls looked towards the elder witch, who had apparently summoned a bowl of popcorn. “go on.” she said, still munching on her popcorn. “don’t mind us.”_

_“yes, the king demands entertainment!”_

_Next to the older witch, sat the king of demons, or the king of cute little paws as Luz sometimes called him, King._

_Luz looked at King confused. “when did you get here?”_

_“oh, I came downstairs to get some snacks, and then I heard talking. So I followed it, and sat down and listened. It was quite amusing.”_

_“King!” Luz called out. “do you not have any manners?! You keep saying you’re the king, you’re at least supposed to have SOME!”_

_“uh, yeah. I’m the king of demons. Us demons don’t really care about that kind of stuff.”_

_Luz huffed. “you got me there.” She then frowned. “but I don’t really appreciate it that you just walk in and start listening to a private conversation.” Luz glared. “And I think that Amity also doesn’t appreciate it, Right?_

_No response._

_“Amity?” the human said as she turned towards her friend._

_Amity’s face was as red as a tomato. She was felt so uncomfortable at the moment. The tiny demon had heard who knows how much, and it worried her. ‘how much did he hear?! What does he know? Am I freaking out?’ she then saw Luz looking at her with a small bit of concern. ‘wait, why is she looking at me like that?’ “uhm, Luz. Something wrong?”_

_“No not really, it’s just that you zoned out again.” Luz answered._

_“hmmm, that is happening a lot lately. Probably should keep an eye on that.” She then tried to get back on track. “anyway, back to the main subject: are you sure that I wouldn’t just be an obstacle?”_

_“I’m very sure.”_

_“wait, what are we talking about here?” King said._

_Luz looked back at King, a big smile on her face. “Amity is going to move in with us.”_

_“uhm, Luz, that isn’t sure yet.”_

_“I don’t know if that is possible kid.”_

_“Wait, what!? No way, NO WAY!”_

_Luz reacted to all of the three responses. “Amity, I pretty sure that it is sure that your staying here. Eda, I think that is possible, easily. And why not King?!”_

_“did you forget?!” he said, he then raised one paw as a fist, while pointing to Amity with the other one. “she murdered my cupcake.”_

_“King,” Luz sighed. “Amity has been here a few times before, and you didn’t mind then. Why now?”_

_“because those times she was just here for a visit and I knew that she would leave eventually. Also my revenge plans weren’t finished yet.” He added in a whisper._

_“what was that?!”_

_“nothing.” The demon said quickly. “but anyway, visiting because she helps you get over your fears or to help Willow regain her memories, are way different situations then permanently living here. And besides, Eda probably thinks this isn’t the best idea.”_

_Eda sighed. “he is right in some way kiddo. It is way different, and seeing the adventures we go on, I don’t think it’s save for her to life with us.”_

_Amity looked at the ground at that. ‘I knew that I would be able to life here. Deep dark Woods, here I come.’_

_“so what?” all three of them looked towards the human of the group, determination in her eyes. “so what if we go on dangerous adventures, it’s not like she’ll be in less danger out in the woods, or in some other town. I mean, the news will spread, and before we know it, the entire Boiling Isles will be looking for her.”_

_“and besides, with did I defeat Grom again? To not even mention the slitherbeast and Otabin.”_

_“wait, Otabin? The character in that children’s book about friendship?” Eda asked._

_“Yeeeaah, kind of forgot to tell you about that little adventure. I’ll tell you later.” She said while rubbing her neck. “anyway, we are Amity’s best chance on staying out of jail. Heck, we are probably Amity’s best chance at staying alive!” she then looked straight at King. “and that thing with your cupcake, I kind of get it, but is it forgiven if Amity just buys you another cupcake.”_

_“a whole box of cupcakes and we have a deal.”_

_Luz looked at Amity, who shrugged. “uh, sure.” The witch said._

_“then I am Willing to allow her a chance of becoming one of my new servants.”_

_“Wait? servants? What?!” Amity responded._

_“don’t mind that, most of what you have to do is give him belly rubs and help him get snacks sometimes. And if you can cook, you sometimes need to make some breakfast.” The human whispered._

_“…..sure.”_

_Luz then turned towards Eda. “and Eda, you can’t just let her leave, I mean, she technically already part of our little group of troublemakers, sooooo.”_

_The Owl Lady sighed. “Fine, but only because she’s your friend.” she then added with a smile. “and so I can rub it in Lilith’s face that her student now lives under my roof.”_

_Amity looked at the group in disbelieve. “wait, are you guys serious? I’m allowed to life here?”_

_Luz looked at Eda and King. The witch nodded, while King just shrugged. The human then turned back towards Amity._

_“yep.” She said with a big smile. “Welcome to the family.”_

_…._

_Amity didn’t know what to say, these people allow her to lve with them, even though she had bullied two of them and was the personal student of the rival/sister of the last one. It didn’t make sense to her. She just didn’t know why they would do this for her, after all she had done and for who she is.But one thing she knew:_

_She now had a new home._

_She lunged at Luz, enveloping her in a big hug. “Thank you.” she said. “thank you SO much!”_

_“It’s what friend, now family, do.” Luz said, returning the hug._

_Few weeks later:_

_Amity had gotten more used to the life in the Owl House. she didn’t have her own room, but she also didn’t sleep on the couch. Instead, she shared Luz’s room. Originally, Luz would have been all too happy to just let Amity have the room, and that she herself would sleep on the couch._

_But the witch protested and they ended up sleeping in the same room. Luz of course, being the ball of positive energy that she is, saw it as a really long sleepover ( she of course had to explain to Amity, what a sleepover was. “basically it is the same as a Moonlight conjuring, but without the conjuring.” she had said.)._

_It was at first kind of awkward for Amity, she wasn’t used to sharing a bedroom like this. What made it worse, was that she shared the bedroom with LUZ of all people, which weirdly enough also made it better._

_They sometimes ended up talking about all kinds of things, but mostly Azura, until deep in the night._

_Meanwhile the older witch and King had gotten more and more used to the idea of Amity living with them. Eda slowly took a liking to the witchling, who, in so way, reminded her of her younger self. King did really warm up to her as easily, sure he had gotten his box of cupcakes, but the little guy was known for holding a grudge._

_Meanwhile, the situation in Bonesborough only became worse and worse. More rules were added over time, and because of that, more and more posters of ‘criminals’ hung onto the walls in town. Amity’s and Luz’s faces could also be seen among them. Each time that either of the teens wanted to go into town, they had to wear dark cloaks, so their identities would stay hidden and so they would be able to blend into the shadows. They were designed and enchanted by Eda, for optimal hiding._

_The members of the Owl House got more and more upset with the Emperor. And because of that, Eda sometimes snuck into town, and spread magical graffiti which would say bad things about the Emperor, like; ‘the Emperor Rules? more like the Emperor Drools.’ Or ‘Down with the monster which calls itself Emperor!’. It appeared to be pissing of the Emperor greatly, because he kept putting more and more guards into the town, all looking for the ‘treason painter’. He also put in new laws which, for example, forbade anyone from practicing art, or showing it, in public._

_But spraying graffiti wasn’t the only thing Eda would do to piss of the Emperor. She would also often mess with patrolling guards, by playing pranks on them, ashaming them in public or she would just fight them in public._

_But Eda didn’t do all of the work, Luz sometimes helped to. She would hang up posters, which said bad thing about the Emperor. Some were even enchanted by Eda so that if someone of the guard or the Emperors coven would rip it of the wall, it would instantly be replaced by another one, and so on and on. The human also snuck into crowds and would whisper criticism on the Emperor, it was her own idea. Eda at first thought that it wouldn’t do much. Weirdly enough, since Luz started doing it, more and more beings were talking about the Emperor doing things the wrong way in public. She wasn’t doing nearly as much as Eda, but she definitely left her mark._

_Amity meanwhile didn’t do very much, she instead just stayed at the Owl House, doing whatever. She wasn’t ready for this kind of thing yet. She had kind of come to terms with her being a convict but that didn’t mean she was PROUD of it, Like for example Eda. She also wasn’t confident enough, like Luz, to sneak into public and do anything illegal._

_But one part of her always wanted to join Luz. She definitely didn’t like the Emperor. She was disgusted by him, and she really wanted to piss him off. So really wanted to join Luz so she could exactly that, ( that her company would be Luz was probably also a reason.)._

_But she didn’t have the guts to do it, she just didn’t. and each time that Luz got home, with a smile on her face from her trip, Amity felt left out. she wanted to be part of the group, she really did. But something inside of her prevented her from doing it._

_But now, she was done hiding away and being a ‘good girl’. And so, as Luz was about to leave for another trip into town,_

_“hey, uhm, Luz?”_

_The human turned towards her. “yeah?”_

_The witch gulped. “Could I, maybe, just maybe, join you?” Luz looked at her confused. Amity accidentally interpreted it wrong, and started apologizing. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. It was a stupid question, it’s just that when you go out, you are doing something important. While I am just sitting here, doing nothing and I’m sick of it! And-…. “Amity!” Luz interrupted her._

_“Of course you can join me.” She said calmly. “I’m just confused that you’re asking it. You don’t need to, heck if you want to you can go into town and spread some chaos whenever you want.” She then walked up to the witchling and layed her hands on her shoulders. “but I’m happy to hear that you are willing to break the law.”_

_Silence then dominated the room._

_“that sounded way better in my head.” Luz admitted._

_In town:_

_“Amity hurry up!”_

_“yeah, I’m trying!”_

_The two teens were out on the streets, working on their own little mission. Luz was standing on the side of the main street of Bonesborough, in front of an alleyway. She was wearing her cloak to hide her identity._

_“I know that this is your first time, but you really need to speed it up back there.”_

_“yeah, yeah. Don’t get your nerves in a twist, I’m almost done.” Amity said. She was hidden behind Luz in the alleyway, hanging up a poster. “Its not as easy as you think.”_

_“I know exactly how easy it is seeing that I have done it multiple times.” Luz answered. “also, you need to calm down, because I think you are the one who is getting their ‘nerves in a twist’.”_

_“why wouldn’t I?! we are doing something illegal!”_

_“you wanted this!”_

_Amity sighed. “true.” She then focused back onto her work. “I’m almost done, just give me a minute.”_

_The human then noticed a commotion coming from further down the market. “uhm, not to make you even more nervous, but I don’t really think we have a minute.” She said as she spotted a bunch of familiar masks through the crowd._

_Amity looked at her with a confused look. Luz then pointed towards the crowd. When Amity looked towards it, her eyes widened, meaning that she saw the masks too. She then looked back at Luz, a bit of fear in her eyes. “what do we do?”_

_“I don’t know.” Luz said._

_“what do mean? Isn’t running probably the best option?”_

_To that, the human teen nodded. “true, but I also want to know what the guards are up to. You never know if they are planning something.“ she then added. “there is also a chance that the Emperor came up with another set of rules and they are announcing them to the crowd._

_“and we are probably going to end up breaking those rules, aren’t we?!” Amity said with a small smirk._

_“exactly.”_

_Turns out that the guards weren’t announcing new rules or something like that, instead, they were in the middle of an arrest. As the teens got closer, they could see more and more. After squeezing themselves through the crowd, they saw what was happening fully:_

_A squad of seven guards were arresting a bat-demon man. Three guards were holding the being on the ground, three others we’re holding the man at spell-point. The last guard was telling the ‘criminal’ his rights,_

_“remember you do NOT have the right to remain silent, everything you say will be used against you, also all of the things you don’t say. And don’t you even think about hiding information, we’ll force it out of you anyway and you’ll then be punished even harsher.” He finished his speech. “bind this criminal in chains so he won’t be able to struggle while being transported to the Conformatorium.” He commanded the other guards._

_They did what was said, and chained up the guy._

_“let me go, you monsters! I didn’t do anything wrong!”_

_“lies.” The guard said. “you disobeyed rule 47 section G: you didn’t say a single compliment towards the Emperor when you bowed before the main statue. Also you insulted guards in function and denied your own guilt.” The guard finished with superiority in his voice. As the squad started walking away, dragging the being with them. The crowd started whispering._

_In the crowd, Luz and Amity watched the man get dragged of to his worst nightmare. Amity had a frown on her face, disappointed at what society had become. She then looked at Luz._

_Luz looked angry, she didn’t like what was going on, at all! Amity saw her reach for her little book filled with ready glyphs, so she quickly pulled Luz out of the crowd. She walked with Luz back to the alleyway, were she spoke to her._

_“Luz? Is everything alright?”_

_“no, of course not!” the human replied. “the Emperor is going too far! Someone needs to do something!”_

_“but we are doing something, aren’t we?!”_

_“yeah, but not in the way that I mean. What I mean is that we actually fight back against him, Literally!”_

_“but Luz, we can’t. Eda might be powerful, but we are talking about an entire army of guards and coven members. Even she can’t beat all of them, to not even mention the Emperor himself!”_

_Luz sighed. “I know. If only we could, like, make an army ourselves.”_

_Her eyes then had a sparkle of hope. “and actually, we Can!”_

_“what are you talking about?”_

_“we can start a rebellion, a force against Belos. A group which is willing to fight against him.” she then said with a confident grin. “believe me, I have seen enough movies to know how and what. I practically an expert.”_

_Amity looked at her, not entirely sure if this was a good idea. She then realized that they didn’t really had anything to lose. She shrugged. “okay Miss Expert, what do we do first?”_

_Luz smirked. “first, we need to spread the message. Tell the people that there are others who are willing to fight for what is right. People who are willing to stand up against Belos.”_

_“And how are we going to do that?”_

_Luz looked her in the eyes, determined. “by making it obvious for everyone to see.”_

_The girls did the following: they started traveling the market, looking for the best spot for the message. When they found it (a big piece of blank wall at the main market square), they remembered where it was and went back home. When it was late at night, the two snuck out of the Owl House. when they arrived back at the spot, they nodded to each other and got to work._

_It took a few hours, but it was finally done, now all they had to do was go home, sleep, and then wake up to see the reactions of the people._

_The next morning:_

_Many beings had gathered at the market square, all talking to each other. Something was obviously going on. The guards patrolling noticed and went to take a look. “ make way, make way! Step to the side, Emperor’s guard coming through!”_

_When they managed to make their way to the front, they saw a giant wall painting._

_The painting seemed to be a depiction of Emperor Belos, who is standing above a witchling, looking down at him/her. The witchling was on their knees, looking down at the ground. Looking inferior In the background could be seen a massive shadow of an owl which had spread its wings. But that wasn’t the main point of the painting._

_The main point of the painting, were the massive words written above it._

_The Emperor is dominating the Isles with an iron fist, suppressing us all._

_But the owl always watches over the people, and is ready to stand up and fight._

_We’re ready to join her._

_Are you?_

_The Rebellion._

_“WHO WROTE THIS!?” the leader of the group shouted._

_“uhm, sir. I think some sort of rebellion did this.” One of the guards answered._

_The leader glared at him. “that is not what I meant! I meant WHO as in a person. I KNOW that it was done by a rebellion.” He then froze. “a rebellion! We need to tell the Emperor immediately! EVERYBODY OUT OF THE WAY!” he shouted as the guards quickly began heading for the base of the Emperors coven._

_The crowd immediately started talking, some really interested at what had happened, others worried that this would only cause more trouble than it is worth. Mixed opinions were all over the crowd._

_But there were two figures in the crowd, who just stood there and listened to the people around them. Both of them wore cloaks. And while the crowd was still talking, no one noticed them slipping away._

_The two exited the crowd and started jogging towards a calm, quiet place. When they finally reached a save place, where barely anyone walked around, they removed their hoods, revealing Luz and Amity._

_Amity looked at her friend, who had a big smile on her face. “and, was it a little bit like you had hoped?” she said, but she already knew the answer._

_“It’s even better then that.” The human replied. “did you hear how they talked about us, or actually, ‘the rebellion’?! some of the obviously didn’t know what to think, but others were talking about how they are happy that someone is standing up towards that tyrant.”_

_“yeah,” Amity said with a smile. “it is nice to hear that we aren’t the only ones who want Belos to lose his power over the Isles.”_

_Luz nodded. “we need to let Eda know. She’ll be so proud.” Amity nodded._

_The two girls quickly started running trough town, and into the woods. By now, Amity knew the way towards the Owl House pretty well. The two quickly reached their home. They quickly opened the door and saw Eda sitting on the couch, sipping some apple blood. King meanwhile was nowhere to be seen. Either he was in town, plying on the playground, or he was sleeping somewhere in the house._

_“hey kids.” The Owl Lady greeted them. “you two look excited, what happened?”_

_“weeeell,” Luz started. “we kind of snuck away last night and painted a poster on one of the walls of the main market square, promoting a rebellion.” Eda did a spit take._

_“you did WHAT?!” she exclaimed. “are you two insane?! Why would you do that?!”_

_“we just wanted to see if we could tell people of our cause.” Luz said. “and to be honest, we got some positive reactions from it.”_

_Eda looked at her student confused. “what do you mean?”_

_Amity answered. “well, we were standing in the crowd and a lot of people were talking about how they were happy to see that someone was willing to stand up to the Emperor.” Amity then shrugged. “others thought that it would cause more problems then it would solve, but what can you do?”_

_Eda sighed as she held her head in her hands. “seriously, you two are going to be the end of me.” She then looked towards the kids again. “you two do realize that they are right, right? That this will cause major problems?!”_

_“maybe,” Luz said. “but what we did could also bring hope to the people in Bonesborough. They now know that there are others willing to fight for the Isles.” She said with a motivated look. Amity nodded, supporting her friend._

_Eda sighed again, then smiled. “seriously, you two are going to end up killing me, I’m telling you. but overall you two didn’t do anything all too bad, at least in my eyes. as long as it works against that tyrant, I almost always approve.” She then shrugged. “And besides, I don’t think this will change all too much to be honest.”_

_She was wrong._

_In the next week, the amounts off crimes skyrocketed. More and more people were openly talking bad about Belos, they messed up his statues, and left graffiti saying thing like: Get lost, Belos. Or: The Owl Will Strike._

_Pretty soon, the owl became the symbol of freedom in Bonesborough. There weren’t a lot of people going against Belos, but it was at least a few dozen._

_Sadly, each and every one of them eventually got caught and were being transported to the Conformatorium. An entire trail f carts were riding on a forest road, towards the living nightmare were the prisoners would spent a uncertain amount of time._

_Everything was going well, until a smoke bomb exploded it the front of the group. The cart immediately came to a stop. And before they could recognize what was going on fully, a cloak wearing figure descended from the sky, landing on the guard driving the first cart, knocking him out._

_The other guards immediately turned around and saw the figure. They quickly drew circles and one of them shouted to the back: “we’re being attacked! Drive back towards base!”_

_The driver of the last cart quickly turned it around, but before he could get moving, he was stopped by an abomination coming from the ground, which lifted the front of the wagon up, enabling it to move. The abomination seemed to be called up by another cloaked figure which jumped out of the bushes._

_In the middle of the escort, they were handling a third cloaked figure, who was throwing around fireballs and summoned plant vines. One of the guards called out: “sir, we are having so problems over here!”_

_From the back of the group of wagons, another shout was heard: “same here!”_

_The leader meanwhile was at the front, fighting the first figure, who just seemed to deflect all of the spells thrown at it. “someone do something!”_

_“with pleasure.” The figure spoke. It suddenly dove forward and blasted multiple spells at ones, knocking multiple guards unconscious. After a few more spells, the only one standing was the leader._

_“you’re not going to get far, we will find you and everybody again and imprison you, IN HONOR OF THE EMPE-“*SMACK* he could even finish his sentence because he was then hit by a staff._

_“I’m sorry, did you say anything?” the figure stepped out of the shadows, revealing Eda. She bent down and grabbed the keys at his belt. “I’ll be taking this thank you.” she then shouted to the back. “how are you girls doing?!”_

_The other two figures walked towards her, and lowered their hoods, revealing Luz and Amity. They were a little bit scuffled up, but they weren’t really harmed._

_“I took care of the back.” Amity said. “which was really easy, surprisingly.”_

_“same with me, but only in the middle. And yeah, it was easy.”_

_Eda shrugged. “they are probably getting lazy because of the low crime rates.” She then smirked. “let’s change that shall we.” The teens nodded as they ran towards the first jail wagon._

_Eda quickly unlocked the door, and light flooded the cart. The ones inside the cart quickly covered their eyes. one of them called out: “please, don’t hurt us.”_

_Luz stepped to the entrance. “we aren’t here to hurt you. we’re here to help you escape!” she said._

_“Luz?” came from the wagon._

_Luz blinked. She recognized those voices._

_“Willow?! Gus?!” the two witchling’s quickly jumped out of the dark wagon, tackling their friend. Luz’s back hit the ground as the two hugged her. “How did you two end up here?”_

_“Willow was caught using magic in town without a license, and we tried to fight back.” Gus explained, releasing the human._

_“so he not only arrests adults but also teens?! What the heck is Belos doing?!” Eda said._

_“screwing up the town and the Isles, that’s for sure.” Amity said. The rest nodded._

_“oh, Amity.” Willow said. “I think I saw your brother and sister here as well when we were put in the wagons.”_

_“Wait, What?!” Amity exclaimed._

_“yeah, they are in the next cart actually.” Gus said. “I saw them getting pushed in.”_

_Amity sighed. “to be honest, I’m not all that surprised. Those two always get into trouble.” She said s she made her way towards the next wagon in line._

_“sooo, what where have you two been?” Willow asked._

_“yeah, we haven’t seen you or Amity at school for a long while.”_

_Luz rubbed the back of her neck. “we have kind of been busy, both of us.” She then looked at her friends confused. “but you guys know where I life, why didn’t you pay a visit?”_

_Willow sighed. “the people of Bonesborough, that includes us, are not allowed to leave town without a permit.”_

_“whhaaaaat! Since when?!”_

_“that rule started a few days after you and Amity stopped going to school. we’re just unable to leave town.”_

_Luz then put her arms on her friends shoulders. “well, believe me when I say that things from now on are going to be different.”_

_Both witchlings looked confused. “What do you me-… STOP IT!” a shout from Amity interrupted Gus._

_The trio looked in her direction and saw that she had already opened the cart containing her siblings. “could you two cut it out?! You need to take this seriously!”_

_“oh, don’t get your hair in a twist, we’re fine Mittens. Nothing happened.” Edric said._

_“yeah, calm down.” Emira added._

_“CALM DOWN! You two got caught by the guards and were about to be brought to the Conformatorium, and you tell me to, CALM DOWN?!”_

_Luz quickly rushed to Amity’s side. “Amity, breath in.” Amity inhaled. “and breath out.” She exhaled. “better?”_

_“better” Amity said with a small smile. She then turned towards the twins. “I’m telling you two, you need to take this more seriously and not see it as some sort of game.”_

_“she’s right, you know.” Luz added. “You two are taking this way to lightly. This is some serious matters going on right now.”_

_“whoah, whoah. Calm down Luz.” Emira spoke. “everything is okay we aren’t hurt, and we’re free. We’re fine.”_

_Luz sighed. She then turned towards Amity. “Come on. The speech is about to start.” The two started walking towards the most middle cart, were Eda was standing on top of._

_“Is everyone out?” the older witch asked the girls._

_“as far as we can see, probably.” Luz said._

_“good enough for me, lets get this show started.” She said as she hit the roof of the wagon with the bottom of her staff. “may I have your attention everyone!” she called out. all of the heads turned towards her, and everyone went silent._

_“you’re probably confused on what is going on, and I don’t blame you. Let me explain it to you.” she looked down at the crowd. “The Emperor has gone way too far with his stupid rules. his way of ruling the Isles is wrong and it will end up destroying society as we know it.”_

_She then struck a heroic pose. “But, we are willing to fight back. We are a possible hope for the Boiling Isles, for us all. We can’t let the Emperor continue his way of ruling or we will suffer greatly for it.”_

_“But we need your help, we aren’t much, but we try. But with your support, we can do something about the tyrant. We can take him down! We won’t be ruled by fear anymore, or his rules.”_

_“WE WON’T LET HIM GET AWAY WITH THIS! WHO’S WITH ME!” she shouted as she raised her staff to the heavens._

_The crowd let out a war cry, a cry of approval. A shout of respect._

_“then Follow me!” she said as she walked of with Luz and Amity at her sides._

_Eda, Luz and Amity let the people towards a big opening in the forest, a few miles away from the ambush. Building materials laying around. There was wood, stone, tools and much more._

_“I think that at least a few people here are construction coven witches?!” Eda said. Multiple hands were raised. “good, you guys can build the town itself. That’s right people, we are going to make our own town, New Bonesborough.”_

_As time progressed, more and more building were finished and people started adapting to their new lives. The town really started to blossom. Eda even moved the Owl House to New Bonesborough._

_Multiple jobs were open, from farmers to town guards. Life was finding it’s way. And when the town was finally finished, Eda had a small surprise._

_She had gathered Luz, Amity, Willow, Gus and the twins at the Owl House. “Okay kids.” she spoke. “as you know, the town is finished, everybody has a place to live. We also have essential jobs like farmers and guards.” She then looked each of them straight in the eye. “but we are missing one group. Fighters. We need a group which is able to venture out to Bonesborough and make life hell for the guards there, we need people who fight outside of town. We. Need. Heroes.”_

_She then smirked. “and that is were you six come in.” all of the kids’ eyes widened, at the realization. “I see great magical potential in all of you, from the best technique,” she pointed at Gus and the twins. “To a high level of power.” She pointed to Luz, Amity and Willow. “each of you has something that makes you special in your abilities, and I’m going to train you all so you are going to be able to use that to its full potential.” She then smiled. “it will also make it easier for you to beat those guards if you ever encounter them.” She winked._

_“I’m in.” Luz said._

_“Me too.” Amity spoke._

_“Count me in”_

_“we’ll show them!”_

_“They will learn to not mess with us.”_

_“we’re gonna kick their butts!”_

_“great to hear.” Eda said. “also you will be moving into the Owl House so that I can train you easier. For some of you that won’t be a problem,” she looked at Luz and Amity. “others are going to need to adapt.” She looked to the rest. “but you’ll get used to it and in no time, you’re going to be some of the strongest witches of the Boiling Isles.” She said with confidence._

_The others nodded._

_“huh, we’re going to be like a big family.” The human said. She then got a idea. “everyone! How about we take a group photo, to remember this day.”_

_“I like that idea.” Willow said. The others nodded. They then huddled up together in front of the Owl House. the only one not with them was Eda._

_“ugh, really?”_

_“yes, really. Now get over here.” Amity said._

_“fiiiiine.” The older witch said as she tried to hide a smile._

_When she finally got there, Luz said: “Okay everyone, smile.”_

_End flashback:_

‘ _From that moment on, we became a family. The training was harsh, but rewarding. We all became stronger and before we knew it, months had passed.’_ She looked at the photo again. ‘ _Edric and Emira moved out_ , _and they became roaming spies, they sometimes still visit though. Willow grew more confident in herself and her magic, and before she knew it she was on of the most skilled witches in plant magic Eda had ever seen. Gus also became better and soon we were barely able to recognize the real thing from an illusion. Amity meanwhile grew both emotionally and in magical power. She is now one of the strongest witches I know. And I, well, I learned new glyphs and new ways to use them. I even started experimenting in combining them and even tried making entire new glyphs._ ’ She then remembered the glyph which she had used in battle. ‘ _their not always as successful.’_

She sighed. ‘ _but overall, I pretty happy with how we all turned out.’_ Luz smiled.

She then heard someone calling her. “Luz! Luz, are you awake?!”

“yeah, I’m awake.” Amity walked into the room.

“finally, I have been calling you for the last ten minutes. The others are back, come on.” She said as she walked back downstairs.

Hearing that, Luz jumped of her bed, and followed Amity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry if the end is a little rushed, I just wanted to get this chapter done. this one wasn't easy to write, and I don't really know when the next one is going to be up. I AM going to update the other chapters 1,2,3 and 4. they need so improvement. also, school is about to start again and that will take a lot of time away, so writing the next chapter is going to take a while.
> 
> Also, Owl House is at it's season end, sad I know. but if you want some other series to watch, look no further then Amphibia and Glitchtechs.
> 
> Amphibia can be found on Disney Channel and Glitchtechs can be found on Netflix. 
> 
> if you like frogs and magic, go see Amphibia.
> 
> If you like gaming and high advanced tech, go see Glitchtechs.
> 
> both series are not getting the amount of succes they deserve (espescially Glitchtechs, which is weird seeing this day and age in gaming.), and need your support. spread the word, and take a look at them. they are worth the watch.  
> anyway, see you next time.
> 
> Gr Elementalwriter.


	6. The Meeting (part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry its late, really sorry.
> 
> hope you enjoy.

Chapter 6.

As Luz ran downstairs, she past Amity, almost bumping into her. the witch rolled her eyes at that.

When the human reached the living room, she saw some of the people who had arrived. “Willow! Gus!”

The two withes turned towards her. “hey, Luz.” “Good Evening Luz.” The two said as Luz embraced them in a hug.

“I missed you two SO MUCH!”

Willow laughed at that. “Luz, we have only been gone for a week or so.”

“maybe,” the brunette reacted, while not letting go of her friends. “but it felt like months.”

At that point, Amity entered the room. She looked the trio with a smile. “Hey Luz, you DO know that they need to breath, right?”

The girl’s eyes widened, as she quickly let go of her two friends. “sorry for that.” She said with a sheepish smile.

“don’t worry about it.” Gus said. “we know how affectionate you can get.”

“especially with your tackle hugs,” Willow added. “and that’s why Amity and Eda wear upper body armor most of the time when they come back from a mission.” She called out with a cheeky grin.

The human got a slight blush at that as she rubbed the back of her neck, while Gus burst out laughing. Meanwhile, Amity just rolled her eyes again in amusement. “come on you three, we have a meeting to get to.” She said as she walked off to the meeting room.

The three looked at each other, nodded, and followed the witch.

The meeting room was basically a big room where most of the plans of the rebellion were made, and when it was planned to build it, the obvious decision was to add it onto the Owl House, seeing that it was the first house of the town.

The room was filled with maps, plans and even stolen blueprints of buildings. It also had a big table, surrounded by chairs, some of them having a symbol on it. Those were meant for specific witches and warriors, ones which had worked themselves up the ranks or were already of high importance.

But even though this was a serious room, there were also object which you would not expect. For example: there was a couch and multiple soft chairs in one corner of the room, as a means of relaxing after a meeting. There was also a coffee machine, which, after a long meeting, was a gift from the gods.

Two people were already in the room, discussing the results of the latest missions.

“all I’m saying, is that they shouldn’t have blown everything up. The plans were priceless.” One said.

“Oh calm your heart, Bump. Everything went even better then was planned.” The other spoke.

“better than planned? Better than planned?!” Bump shouted. “Edalyn, we needed those papers! And this was our only chance. Now they’re gone forever!”

The Owl Lady then got a sly grin on her face. “I wouldn’t be so sure of that.” She said as she reached behind her back and pulled out a bunch of papers.

“The plans? But how?”

Eda gave a laugh. “You may think that those two are just a reckless bunch, but they know where their priorities are.” She pointed out. Before they started planting the bombs, they stole them from the desk of the base-leader, and then started wreaking havoc.”

Bump grumbled. “still, they could have put everything at risk, just to mess with the Emperor and blow up the base.” The female witch shook her head at that.

“believe me Bump, it needed to happen. There were no other options.”

The male witch frowned at that, confused. “what do you mean, no other opti-“EDA!”

The old witch got interrupted by a shout, which came from a overenergetic Latina, who ran into the room. The girl immediately pulled Eda into a hug. After her, Amity, Willow and Gus all walked into the room and greeted the two older witches.

“It’s so good to see you again.” The Latina said.

The Owl Lady chuckled. “Kid, it has only been maybe two weeks that I was gone.”

Luz pouted. “but it felt like an eternity.” She said as she let go of her mentor.

“that’s the same thing that we tried to tell her, but she wouldn’t listen.” Willow spoke. As a reaction, The human blew her a raspberry. Eda laughed.

“unbelievable, you’re an adult but you still act like you’re a child.” She then pulled the brunette in and rubbed her knuckles into the human’s head. “never change kid. Never change.”

“Edddaaa,” Luz whined. “I’m not a kid anymore.”

“So? To me, you’ll always be my kid.” The cursed witch said as she gave the human a sideways hug, which made Luz smile again.

“You’re such a big softie, you know that.”

At that, the older witch pushed her student away from her with a frown. “I’m not soft.” She said as she crossed her arms in front of her chest and looked away from the group.

The others immediately burst out in laughter, and if anyone was watching closely, they could see a hidden smile on Eda’s face.

When everyone had calmed down, Bump spoke up. “okay, enough fooling around everyone. We just need to wait for the last people to arrive and then we can start-“ “no need, we’re already here.”

Everyone turned towards the main entrance of the room. Two more people, wearing cloaks, could be seen standing in the doorframe. They were the same height and practically the same body build. As the pulled down their hoods, dark green hair and mischievous eyes could be seen.

“Ed! Em! Your back!” Amity called out as she ran up to them. Even though the twins could be a pain in the butt, they were still family and she loved them to bits.

“hey Mittens,” Emira said as she hugged her little sister together with her twin. “how’s it going?”

“you didn’t do anything bad, did you?” Edric spoke teasingly.

Amity pulled back with a smirk. “so what if I did? You two would just be proud of me.”

Her brother shrugged. “can’t deny that.”

“as long as it is against Belos, it’s always good.” Her sister added.

The trio laughed at that, while the rest of the room, except Bump, smiled at the interaction between the siblings. Before the takeover, they weren’t all that close. But after rescuing the twins from being brought to the Conformatorium, the siblings grew a lot closer. The twins actually became a lot nicer towards Amity and the young witch was able to relax more because she was free of their strict and controlling parents.

A cough could be heard, silencing the siblings. The one who coughed was the former principle. “Now, if you are all done with messing around and wasting valuable time, we can finally get down to business.” He said with an annoyed frown.

“oh calm down, old man.” Edric said “If you don’t, your face will get stuck like that.”

Bump hmphed. “can we just begin?! We have more important things to do than mess around.”

Eda nodded as she became serious. “he’s right. We have a lot to discuss.” She said as she pulled out her chair and sat down. At that, everyone walked to their spots. When Luz grabbed her chair, she looked at the symbol on the backrest of it. a light glyph.

On each of the chairs around the table, were symbols. They each showed who was supposed to sit there.

As all of them had taken place in their respective places, Bump spoke up. “As you all know, some of us have been on missions for a few weeks, each with their own tasks. And even though some of the missions were completed questionable,” he glared towards the twins. “each of them were completed none the less.” He then looked around the group. “how about we go through the summaries of the missions, alright?” everyone nodded.

“Miss Park and Mr Porter, how about we start with you.” A bunch of papers appeared on the table, which made the young adults groan.

“come on Bump, there are better ways to talk about this.” Emira said, while Luz, Amity, Willow and Gus nodded.

“how exactly?”

“well,” Edric started. “You could use something else then paper. You could, for example, use a projection of the papers instead of the real things. This way you can give everyone a copy without to much hustle, and it’s just way more efficient.”

Bump grumbled. “I don’t care. This method hasn’t failed me yet and it won’t. now shush.” He turned back towards Willow and Gus. “you two had the mission to look into some of the investments that the Emperor has made. How did that go?”

Willow started. “well, it didn’t exactly go as planned. We had just travelled for two days straight and when we arrived at the location where we would meet up with our contact, he was nowhere to be seen. We looked around the block and asked around, but nobody had seen him.” Gus nodded in confirmation.

“so we just tried to do the mission with the info that we already had and walked towards one the locations which Belos had invested in.”

_Flashback:_

_“so, basically you want to try to complete the mission without the extra information?” Gus said. the other witch nodded in response._

_“we know enough about it to at least get it somewhat done. It may not go as intended, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take.”_

_The two walked through the streets in one of the biggest towns in the Titan’s ribcage: Ribonia City._

_Unlike towns like Bonesborough, Ribonia was surrounded by guarded walls instead of, for example, a forest or something. It was also about four times as big as their hometown and it had more wealth as well (As much as the rich families of Bonesborough tried to deny it.)_

_The two rebels walked over one of the marketplaces. Many had set up their shopping stalls and a lot of people were walking around, giving them cover. Which was very important, because a bigger town, means more guards patrolling around. And seeing that the entirety of the Isles knew of the existence of The Guardians, it was a good idea to attract as low amount of suspicion as possible. You never knew if a guard would suddenly recognize you._

_Even though they were on a mission, that didn’t mean that the two couldn’t look around a little bit while they were here. There were a lot of stalls and shops you wouldn’t be able to find in their hometown. Shops which sold shrunken heads, spirits in bottles of all kinds, special accessories for your magic staff and more. There were even some shops selling stuff from the human world._

_After about twenty minutes of travelling, they arrived at their destination._

_“are you kidding me?!” Gus said while looking at the location. “you’ve got to be kidding me.”_

_Willow looked at the paper with the address. “Nope, this is the place.”_

_“so your telling me, that Belos invested in a…” he looked back towards his friend. “are you sure?!”_

_Willow frowned at him. “Yes Gus, I’m sure.” She said while getting sightly annoyed at her partner._

_“sooo, he invested in a… in a-“_

_“in a furniture shop? Yes indeed.”_

_In front of them was a relatively small shop which sold all kinds of furniture and even home decorations. From vases and small wooden statues, to lamps, tables and couches._

_“how can this be of any importance to him?!” Gus exclaimed._

_“don’t know but I highly doubt that he wants some new furniture for his palace.” The female witch said as she walked towards the small building._

_“what are you doing?”_

_Willow looked at her partner as she walked. “I taking a closer look. You never know. Belos is involved with this place, so we have all the reason to think that something is wrong.”_

_Gus sighed at that. He knew she was right, but that didn’t mean he liked it. ‘this just can’t be right. Why in the world would Belos even care about something like this? I just don’t get it.’ But none the less did he follow the female witch._

_As the two walked in, they were hit a feeling of coziness that you would get when you sit in front of the fireplace when it’s snowing outside, while drinking hot chocolate. Throughout the shop, you could see a big variety of different furniture and styles. Gus frowned for a moment, because the moment they entered, a weird feeling formed at the back of his head, some kind of tingle. It wasn’t much, he could easily ignore it, but still. That it was there at all, was weird. He looked over towards Willow. She didn’t seem to notice anything, or she just didn’t react. He shrugged at that. It was probably nothing._

_As soon as the door closed behind them, an employee walked up to them. He greeted them with a friendly smile. “Hello, my name is Gerald and welcome to Furniture Kingdom. How may I help you today?”_

_“oh we’re just looking.” Said Willow._

_“hm,” the employee hummed. “may I know what may peek your interest?”_

_The female Witch quickly came up with a lie. “Well you see, me and my husband here, recently moved to this town and we want to decorated our new house. so far, we couldn’t really find anything that goes with our style. And then we saw this, and thought: ’why not give it a try?’” Gus looked at her, confusion written all over his face. Luckily Gerald didn’t see that. His full attention was on Willow._

_“Ah, Well I hope that I can assist you as much as possible.” The man said._

_Willow nodded as she walked off to another part of the shop with Gus. When they were far enough away, Gus spoke up. “Husband? New House? What?!”_

_“Ssssshh” The turquoise-blue haired Witch put a hand over the man’s mouth. “could you be quieter? We don’t want to attract any attention!” she looked around. Seeing no one in close range, she turned back towards her dark brown haired partner. “it was just a little lie so we could look around.”_

_She got a deadpanned look in response. “you could have also told him that we were just customers. You didn’t need to put up a whole story. Especially about us being together.”_

_“I know, I know. I just…. Wanted a believable story. That’s all.” She said as she started making her way through the store, without turning back. Gus frowned as he followed her._

_“no, I don’t think that’s it. There’s something more going on here, and-“just drop it okay!”” the male witch’s eyes widened in shock at Willow’s outburst. Seeing his reaction, Willow calm herself down._

_“I’m sorry Gus, It’s just that… It’s just..”_

_Gus then thought about every aspect of the lie and put it together. “It’s about her, isn’t it?” he whispered. Willow didn’t answer. “Willow?”_

_“so what if it is?!” she muttered. “so what if we were planning to move in together later? So what if I hoped that we would get married one day?! SO WHAT IF-“ she got interrupted by Gus hugging her._

_“I’m sorry I asked. I should have stopped looking into it.”_

_Willow snorted. “It’s not your fault, it’s just a part of who you are.” She was still frustrated, but because different reasons: one was that she lashed out like that at one of her best friends. Then there was that they were one a secret mission and she was attracting a lot of attention with her outbursts in this small shop. And another big part of her was frustrated that she was reopening old wounds. “and that was just the first thing to pop into my mind. I’m just being dumb.”_

_“maybe, maybe not. But… still.” He stepped away from her, but still held her by the shoulders. “I didn’t need to dive into it, but still did. I should have just stopped. I know how sensitive you are about this.”_

_Willow sighed. “It’s just… I thought I was over it, over HER, but apparently not. I just wish that I could have done more. Could have….Could have…” she started tearing up._

_“Hey, hey, hey. Snap out of it. You tried your best. What happened was not your fault, it was her decision. It’s not your fault that she made the wrong choice.” His grip tightened. “It’s not your fault that she didn’t realize what she would lose. WHO she would lose.”_

_Willow sniffled. “But… But-“No buts, none of it is your fault and no one is even willing to blame you. Nobody WANTS to blame you! Not Luz, Amity, The Blight Twins, Eda or me. None of us are blaming you.” he then gave her a friendly shove. “Heck, I bet that if most of us see her again, she won’t leave unharmed. Especially when Luz or Amity find her.”_

_At that, Willow got a small smile on her face. She knew that if either Luz or Amity found her, she’d be in grave danger. Amity was obvious, everyone knew she was a powerful witch and she wouldn’t be afraid to show just how powerful._

_But Luz, let’s just say that the human girl seemed like a person who wouldn’t hurt a fly. But every single member of The Guardians knew, that the girl seemed to have some sort of dark side to her. One moment she would be the cheerful, harmless girl everyone knew, but the moment her friends and family were in danger, she would turn into a battle hardened warrior who was not afraid to inflict a bunch of pain on her enemies. “I know.” She sighed again. “Thanks Gus.”_

_He looked at her quizzically. “Thanks? For what?” as an answer, the blue haired witch hugged him._

_“for being my friend and always being there for me when I need it.”_

_Gus returned the hug. “anytime Willow, anytime.”_

_They held it for a few seconds until they let go of each other. “we should probably focus on our mission.”_

_The male witch nodded, and the two split up._

_Gus made his way through the shop, looking around at all of the different objects standing around. He continued to make his way deeper and deeper into the shop. He past all kinds of different furniture: Sofas, chairs, tables big and small, even beds. He didn’t really pay any attention to it, lost in his thoughts about what Belos would want with this place. As he was walking by the big wardrobes, he saw something which looked out of place._

_There were two bulky men, walking around in the hallway next to him. on it own it would seem weird, but it looked strange, because they kept walking in the same area. Each with an unreadable look on their face. The two reminded Gus way too much about guards patrolling around._

_And right as he past the men, they saw him looking towards them. As a response, Gus simply waved at them as he continued on. All he got as a response was silence. Neither of them even moved a muscle in response, but he could feel their eyes following him until they were out of sight._

_‘that is off and weird. And I don’t mean in a good way.’ He thought. ‘It might be nothing, but I could be wrong.’ He decided to let it rest for now. He had to focus. The rest of the shop looked relatively normal. Nothing really looked or felt of about it._

_But when he past the beds, the weird feeling at the back of his head got stronger. Instead of it being a light tingle, it now felt like something was applying pressure to his skull and brain. He frowned. The feeling wasn’t normal to begin with, and now it just got worse. This can’t be good._

_He turned around, and was about to start walking back towards his companion, when he noticed something._

_The front of the shop looked like it was miles away from where he was. How did he not even realize that judging by the outside of the shop, he should have reached the back wall a long time ago._

_He whistled. “something is definitely wrong in here. This just doesn’t make any sense.” He quickly took off, running towards Willow. And as he ran past_

_When the two of them had split of, Willow headed over to what seemed to be the accessories side of the shop. There were curtains, made out of all kinds of different material: cotton, leather or just a straight up animal pelt. There were also different kinds of cushions, for couches and sofa’s, to chairs and beds. She looked around at all of the people walking around, spying for anything weird. Either they were customers or employees. But apparently she wasn’t stealthy enough._

_“uhm, can I help you?”_

_The witch practically jumped when she heard the voice behind her. she quickly turned around and came face to face with a shop employee. “oh, uhm, sorry. I was just… just…” she looked around, trying to find a good reason. Her eyes landed on a nearby nightstand. “..Just looking for a new nightstand.” she said with a smile, while she thought: ‘A nightstand?! Really?! I couldn’t come up with anything better?!’_

_“aah, looking for some new decor. Any particular reason?”_

_“well, me and my husband just moved into town, and we still need to decorate our new house. and the nightstand that we had originally is just way to old by now. It was long time for a new one.”_

_The man nodded. “Alright. Anything particular your looking for?”_

_“well, I was looking for one made out of refined redwood. Do you have anything like that?”_

_“Why yes, we do. Follow me.”_

_“thank you, sir.”_

_“Please, call me Charlie.”_

_The two walked for a little bit until they stopped in front of a nice looking red colored nightstand. “here you go, a fine looking nightstand made out of refined redwood.”_

_Willow frowned as she looked at it. “hmm” she spoke. “just out of curiosity, are you sure this is actually refined redwood?” The employee looked at her with raised eyebrows. “I just want to be sure, because some of my friends also wanted some furniture made from refined redwood, and it turned out to be something completely different. It’s not like I don’t trust you,” ‘which I don’t.’ she added in her mind. “but I just want to be extra cautious.”_

_Charlie nodded. “oh, that’s fully understandable ma’am. Fully understandable.” he then puffed out his chest and laid his hand over his heart. “but as junior manager of this establishment, I can assure you, that this is pure refined redwood.”_

_“wonderful.” Willow said with an innocent smile. “I’ll go look for my husband, so we can make a deal. Thank you very much for your help.”_

_“That’s part of my job ma’am. Glad that I could help you and your partner.” He said with a friendly smile, then he walked away._

_Willow kept smiling until he was out of view, and her face turned into a serious frown. ‘I knew something wasn’t right. And now I know for sure.’ She started heading into the direction the her companion went to earlier. ‘I have to find Gus.’_

_Ten minutes of walking later, she noticed that she should have reached him a long time ago. ‘the heck?’ she looked around. ‘how did I not notice that the shop is WAY bigger on the inside!?’ she huffed. ‘Another reason why things are fishy around here.’_

_But as she started pondering over it, a weird voice pushed its way into her mind. ‘oh, don’t worry about it. It’s probably normal here. Many shops probably have this kind of thing because there isn’t a lot of space.’ It said with a calming and alluring voice. ‘and Charlie probably just made a mistake. It happens to the best of us.’_

_The voice almost, somehow, managed to convince her. but she knew better then to listen to weird voices in her head._

_As she continued walking, the voice kept talking to her. it was still trying to convince her that it was normal. And she was slowly giving in. Slowly but surely, her mind started slipping deeper and deeper into the voice’s grip. She and the rest of The Guardians had done multiple trainings to resist these kinds of things, but somehow it was still able to worm its way deeper and deeper. She felt herself slipping away, and there was nothing she could do about it._

_And right as she was about to completely lose the battle of wills,_

_“Willow!”_

_The witch turned around, and saw her companion running towards her. “Gus. What’s wrong?”_

_When he reached her he looked at her quizzically. “have you not noticed?”_

_The female looked at him, confused. “no? What should be wrong?”_

_“what should be wrong? What should be wrong?! Willow! Look around you! this shop is WAY bigger than it looks from the outside.”_

_The look on Willow’s face didn’t change. “So?”_

_“SO, something is definitely wrong here!” Gus called out. “this can’t be normal!”_

_“are you sure about that?”_

_The male witch looked at his companion with a confused look. “…..what?”_

_“how can you be so sure that this isn’t normal? What if this is a regularity in this town?”_

_“….Willow, messing with dimensional space is something only capable by high powered witches, to not even mention that it’s technically very illegal.”_

_The female witch shrugged. “maybe the rules are different here?”_

_Her partner started getting worried. “Willow, are you okay?”_

_“I’m fine. Why?”_

_“well, you are constantly defending this place. A place, might I ad, we have been send to because Belos is involved. And now we find out that it has dimensional manipulation spells put on it, which is even more proof that this place isn’t as innocent as it looks. And right as I leave you alone for a few minutes, you are suddenly defending this place like none of it matters.” He called out. “Heck! YOU we the one who said that we should enter and had to take a closer look, because you didn’t really trust it!”_

_“Gus, I think you’re over exaggerating. Your making stuff sound way worse than it actually is.” The blue haired witch said._

_If it physically could, Gus’s jaw would have hit the floor in confusion. He knew that he sometimes came up with weird stories, and most of them were not true. But Willow knew, just like the rest, that on a mission, he doesn’t make up stories like this. “Willow, I’m serious!”_

_“And I’m serious as well! Look around you, why would Belos even care about a shop like this?! And the whole ‘bigger on the inside then on the outside’ thing, is probably normal in this town. So stop making up stories!” his partner said with an angry frown._

_At this point, Gus had become very worried about her. None of this made sense. His friend wasn’t making any sense. “Willow, are you sure you’re okay?” he said as he reached for her._

_“I’m FINE.” She replied harshly. “can we go now? It’s obvious that we are wasting our time here!” she spoke as she turned around, about to head for the entrance._

_“Willow!” the male cried out. “Listen to me!” he said as he grabbed her shoulder._

_Immediately he was hit with a feeling with almost made him keel over and empty his stomach on the floor. But he wasn’t the only one suffering, because, when he grabbed her, a massive headache formed in the witch’s head, making her incredibly dizzy. “what’s going on?” she said as she clutched her head._

_“I don’t know!” It took a few more seconds for the feeling to go away. When it stopped, the two looked at each other with concern. “what the heck was that!?”_

_“I…I have no idea. But one thing is for sure, I don’t want it to happen again.”_

_“same here.” He then got a serious look in his eyes. “Now you can’t possibly deny, that everything is alright with this place. Because THAT, was NOT normal!”_

_“I….I…I know you’re right.” The female witch said as she grabbed her head in her hands in frustration. “but somehow I still can’t believe you.”_

_“…...What?”_

_“I don’t know! Something is pushing at the back of my mind, and I don’t know what it is..” Willow shrugged, still holding her head. “That’s the best way I can describe it. Not only that, but I have a feeling that I forgot something, something important.” a big headache hit her right then, making her wince and tightened the grip onto her head._

_At first, Gus looked at her in confusion, not knowing what the heck she was talking about. ‘A pushing force in the back of her mind, which might also cause memory loss?” he then tried to call up everything he knew which sounded even remotely like this. Sadly, he came up with nothing. ‘this is so freaky. When we were outside, she was totally fine, and now she is, well, like this. To not even mention that when I tried to talk bad about this place, she reacted violently, which she normally would never do.’ He frowned. ‘If I didn’t know any better, I would think that this is some kind of field which causes-!” Then his eyes widened in slight realization. ‘Oh, crud.’_

_He turned back towards his friend. “okay, Willow. Don’t freak out, but I think that you are victim of a very powerful mind-field.”_

_Silence._

_“WHAT!?”_

_The male quickly looked around them, seeing if her outburst had caused any unwanted attention. Luckily, and miraculously, no one was around._

_“okay, I know that sounds bad, and it is, but I think I know a way to reverse it. No need to shout.”_

_“sorry, but I reacted that way because, yeah, it sounded bad. And I have no idea what that is.”_

_“Oh.” Gus responded. “well, a mind field is a very hard spell to cast, it’s also very illegal. People who enter it, have their minds influenced and manipulated in certain ways. Some kind of being is place in your mind as long as you remain in the field. Outside of it, it will almost immediately disappear.”_

_Willow still frowned. “are you sure?”_

_Her companion nodded. “very sure. I’m mean, it would explain everything.” He explained. “the pushing feeling at the back of your mind, the memory loss and even your outburst towards me earlier. Someone obviously made the spell in such a way, that no one would start thinking bad about his place. And each time that someone would, they would get a violent reaction from someone else. Also the headaches your having are from trying to overcome the spell.”_

_“okay, but what about the memory loss?”_

_“that can also be integrated into the spell, but that is mostly to cover something up. And that is only done when the area has something to hide.”_

_Willow nodded. “okay, okay. I guess that makes sense.” she then got hit with another headache. “but why are you not getting affected?”_

_Gus turned away from her, and pondered for a bit, until he came to a descend explanation. “My training.” he turned back towards her. “we each went through different types of special training back at home. Mine was to resist mind control.”_

_The blue-haired witch gave him a deadpanned look. “Gus, we ALL had that training.”_

_He nodded. “yeah, the regular training. But as you know, we also got special lessons, which were different for all of us. Mine was a way heavier version of the anti-mind control training.” He explained. “but its trying to get to me to, because I have some pressure at the back of my mind. But it doesn’t affect me in any way. It’s only annoying me.”_

_“okay, that’s good and all, but how are we going to remove the spell from my head?”_

_“well, I think I know a way, but it could be painful.”_

_Willow looked worried. “how painful are we talking about exactly?”_

_Gus shrugged. “eh, probably a major headache as long as the process goes, which will remain the rest of the day. And tomorrow you’ll be incredibly tired.”_

_“oh.” She then looked at him, confused. “how do you know so much about this?”_

_“lets just say that, to defend yourself from mind manipulation, you first need to know what you’re dealing with to be able to fight against it.” He got a nod of understanding in response. “anyway, you ready?”_

_“Wait, you want to do this now?!”_

_“well, yes.” He argued. “we should get rid of it as soon as possible and I am unable to do it outside the shop, sooooo.”_

_Willow huffed. “fine. But try to do it as fast as you can.”_

_“I’ll try.” The male witch responded as he put his hands on each side of the female’s head._

_“uuuh, Gus? Is this really needed?”_

_“If you want to have it done properly and as fast as possible? Yes.” Willow didn’t respond to that. Instead, she closed her eyes, and waited for the pain to come. Meanwhile Gus was channeling his magic through his hands, in search of the spell which had put itself in his friend’s head. It took some time, but he found it. To him, it felt and looked like some weird blob made out of magical energy. “okay Willow, I found it. You ready?” he felt her nod slightly. “then here, we, go!”_

_Immediately when her friend started using his magic to fight the spell, she was hit with the WORST headache she had ever felt. So bad, that even though she had prepared herself for it, she still screamed in pain. “AAAAAAAH! GUS! I THOUGHT YOU SAID IT WAS JUST A BIG HEADACHE!”_

_She almost pulled her head out between Gus’s hands, but he prevented that from happening. “hey, I told you it was going to be bad!”_

_“bad!? BAD?! THIS IS SO MUCH WORSE THEN BAD! THIS PUTS A MIGRAINE TO SHAME, MULTIPLE TIMES OVER!” Tears started to form in Willow’s eyes._

_“Work through it Willow.” Sweat started forming on Gus’s forehead from the strain. “I’m almost done.” Indeed, the magical essence was reducing and fading away._

_“WORK THROUGH IT?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!”_

_“I don’t think that screaming is helping you much. Just hold on a little longer.”_

_“I KNOW! SHUT UP!” But realizing that her screaming really wasn’t helping, she tried to stop herself from doing so by biting her bottom lip._

_The next few seconds felt like an eternity to her. everything she felt was the pain in her head. The only think giving her comfort, were Gus’s words of encouragement. And right when she thought that the pain would end,_

_“Aaand I’m done.”_

_And right as he said that, the headache started fading away instantly. Sadly, the pain had sapped away a lot of her strength and she fell on her knees, her legs unable to keep her standing. Gus reacted quickly and caught her before she could collapse any further._

_After a few moments of silence, Willow looked up towards her friend. “Is it gone?”_

_The brown-haired witch nodded in confirmation. “Yeah, it’s gone.” All he got as an answer, was a sigh in relieve._

_The two sat there for a few more seconds, until Gus helped her stand up again. “feeling better?”_

_The blue-haired witch nodded. “thanks to you.” she said with a small smile._

_“hey, what are friends for?” he responded with a small smile of his own._

_It took a few moments for Willow to stand sturdy again on her own, but Gus didn’t mind._

_And right as she was able to fully stand again, someone walked around the corner. “Is everyone alright? I heard screaming.”_

_The person was an employee who Gus hadn’t met before. sadly, Willow DID meet him. “Hello Charlie. Good to see you again.”_

_“Oh, hello Ma’am. I see you found your husband.”_

_Gus gave her a confused look, while she responded. “I was actually about to show him the fine piece of furniture you showed me.”_

_“Ah, okay. The redwood nightstand.”_

_Gus was very, very confused. “redwood nightstand? What?” sadly Charlie heard him._

_“what’s wrong sir? I thought that you were looking for a new one. Your wife told me so.”_

_Gus quickly looked towards Willow, who’s eyes were filled with concern. Then the lightbulb in his head lit up. “Well, yes, we are looking for a new one.” He turned towards the female witch. “But Honey, for the last time, we are NOT looking for something made out of redwood!”_

_Willow was slightly confused, but she still played her part, wanting to see were the other witch was going with this. “We were not?”_

_The brown-haired witch shook his head. “No. we are looking for something made out of reallwood.”_

_The employee tilted his head. “Reallwood? I have never heard of that type before. are you sure you are saying the name right?”_

_“fairly sure. But to be honest, I don’t blame you for not knowing about reallwood. You see, it comes from a specific type of tree which can faze out of existence, and very few are lucky to get wood from it. So you can understand that it is very, VERY exclusive.”_

_“Oh,” the employee said. “don’t mind me asking, but how did you get access to it if it’s so exclusive? You don’t seem like the ‘I’m rich and important type.’. No offence.”_

_“none taken.” Gus reacted. “but if you really want to know, lets just say that we are befriended with a very wealthy and influential family who got us in contact with the people delivering the wood.” He explained. “we kind of thought that you would have it.”_

_Charlie nodded in understanding. “Okay, understandable. And you can probably guess it from my reaction, but we don’t have that here. I’m sorry.”_

_The brown-haired witch put on a polite smile. “oh don’t worry. He had fun looking around you nice shop. Right Honey?” he said. when Willow didn’t react, he jabbed her in the side with his elbow._

_“Yes, It was very nice.” She reacted quickly. she then looked at her wrist and then turned towards her ‘husband’. “Dear, we need to get a move on if we want to meet up with the others. They are probably already waiting for us.”_

_The male witch turned towards the employee. “we’re going to show some friends around town.” He then stuck out his hand. “we sadly have to go.”_

_“well, I’m happy that you had a good time here. Hopefully we will be able to help you next time.” Charlie said as he grabbed Gus’s hand and gave it a firm handshake. “I hope you two have a nice day.” He said as he walked of._

_The two rebels watched him until he disappeared behind a corner. When he did they both let out a sigh of relieve._

_“By the way,”_

_They instantly froze as Charlie stuck his head back around the corner. “I originally came this way because I heard someone screaming. Did you two hear anything per chance?”_

_The two witches looked at each other, not really knowing what to say. “uhm,” Gus tried. “Yes, we heard it too. I think that it came from further down the store to be honest.” He said as he pointed towards the far left of them, away from the exit._

_“ah okay, thank you. again, have a nice day.” He said as he walked of in the direction Gus pointed._

_As he disappeared behind the corner again, the two rebels waited a few seconds and then let out another sigh of relief. “that was close.” The blue-haired witch spoke._

_“you can say that again.” Her companion confirmed. “we should probably book it before he comes back.”_

_“probably, yeah.” Willow said as the two quickly started heading towards the exit._

_The two kept walking until they were a few blocks away from the store._

_Gus was the first one to speak up. “that, didn’t really go as planned.”_

_“no, it absolutely didn’t.” she then smiled. “but we did get some evidence that something is up with that shop, and that’s all that matters.”_

_Gus nodded. “indeed, but I think we should talk about this in our room, and not out in the open like this.” With that, the two headed towards their temporary ‘base’._

_Sadly, all their base was, was a decent looking hotel room somewhere in the middle of town. It consisted of a small living room, two bedrooms, and a bathroom. The living room had a small couch and two chairs, a small dining table and a mini fridge. It also had a big window with a glass door which lead out onto a balcony._

_As Willow sat down on the couch, Gus walked to the fridge and grabbed some drinks. As he sat down as well, he gave his friend her drink. The two sat in silence for a few moments until Willow broke it. “I’m sorry about what happened.”_

_Gus turned towards her with a confused look. “Sorry? For what?”_

_“for, you know, not making a plan in case of emergency and the yelling.”_

_She got a deadpanned look as response. “okay, first of, we already didn’t have any plan to begin with so don’t worry about it. And secondly, the yelling was not your fault. The procedure was apparently way more painful than I thought.”_

_Willow snorted. “It hurt like hell, just so you know.” The male witch rubbed the back of his neck._

_“yeah, kinda guessed that by your reaction.”_

_The female snickered, but then turned serious again. “but, seriously though. My yelling and screaming could have completely ruined the mission. We were lucky that we got away with it like we did.”_

_Gus sighed as he laid an arm over the women’s shoulders. “Willow, its not you fault. At all. We weren’t prepared. We didn’t know what we would encounter.” He then shook her by the shoulder a little. “but enough of you talking bad about yourself, we need to focus on the mission.”_

_“right.” The blue-haired witch responded. “so, what did you find as possible evidence?”_

_The male tapped his chin. “well, besides the whole mind-field situation, I noticed that the shop was WAY larger then it looked. And jugging by your reaction, that isn’t new to you.”_

_“not really, no. I actually found that out right before the spell took over.” She admitted. “anything else?”_

_“kind of. When I past the wardrobe department, I saw two bulky men walking around back and forth.” He got a raised eyebrow in response. “yes, I know that it doesn’t sound off or anything, but it was just the way the two of them moved. Kinda stiff and just with blank faces, not showing a single bit of emotion.” He shrugged. “it just looked weird. Oh, and when I walked past them and they saw me looking, they kept their eyes on me the entire time until I was out of sight.”_

_Willow nodded. “that is kind of weird. But not really anything to worry about right now. Anything else?”_

_The male shook his head. “sadly not. You?”_

_“as I said earlier, the shop being way bigger on the inside then should be possible.” She pointed out. “But I also found out another important detail.”_

_Gus leaned forward, eager to know what she was gonna say. Did they find something that would completely turn this case upside down? what if… what if..-_

_“Charlie didn’t know what Redwood was.”_

_Silence_

_“are you kidding me?! You’ve got to be kidding me!” to say that Gus sounded pissed off was an understatement. “the thing, you discovered, is that a single employee, doesn’t know what Redwood is. REALLY?!”_

_Willow put her hands in front of her, pausing Gus’s angry rant. “If you allow me to explain, you’ll understand.”_

_“fine. But I hope you’re right.”_

_The blue-haired with sighed as she started to explain. “so, when we split up, I headed over to the accessories and decoration section. There I tried to see if anyone was acting suspicious or off. Sadly, I was not sleek enough about it and I got caught by Charlie. He had noticed my weird behavior and asked me if I was looking for something. And since I couldn’t just say: “yes, I’m looking for Belos his secret plans.” I tried to come up with something which wouldn’t put a giant target on my head. And the first thing that I saw was a nightstand, soooo, I said that I was looking for a new nightstand.”_

_Gus raised an eyebrow._

_“Yes, I know. Not the best lie, but I had to come up with something quick okay!” she then breathed out to calm herself down. “aaanyway, to get back to the story, I told him that I needed a new nightstand because our old one- ”Our?” Yes, ‘our’ old one was not good enough anymore. He then also asked me if I wanted a specific type of nightstand, and I told him that I was looking for one made out of refined Redwood. He said that they had it and we started walking._

_Eventually we end up standing in front of a red nightstand. He proudly announced that this was probably exactly what I was looking for, a really nice looking nightstand, made out of refined Redwood.”_

_“It sound like he knew what he was talking about.”_

_“that’s the thing, he didn’t. because the nightstand that he precented to me wasn’t made out of refined REDwood, but out of refined WHITEwood.”_

_Gus tilted his head in confusion. “wait, but I thought you said that the nightstand was red.”_

_Willow nodded in confirmation. “yeah. Blood red in fact.”_

_Gus’s confusion grew even more. “but… then how can you say that it was made out of Whitewood, while it was blood red in color?”_

_“I can say that, because while Whitewood is normally white, when you refine it, it becomes blood red.” Willow explained._

_“that is very confusing.”_

_“I know, but connected to it is a sort of myth. People say that when a Whitewood tree is cut down, it finds piece. Its parts gets divided but not hurt.” She told. “but when they get refined, the veins get hit, and the wood starts bleeding, turning it red from the inside out.”_

_Gus looked disturbed. “creepy and very gross.”_

_Willow shrugged. “kinda yeah. But that is one of the stories going around.”_

_The male witch quickly tried to get the thought of bleeding trees out of his mind by changing the subject. “so he mistook a red colored wood for a originally white colored wood. So? Maybe it’s a common mistake?”_

_“actually no. you see, the wood of a Redwood tree is originally a reddish-brown type of color. And when it gets refined, it turns a deep shade of brown. And don’t think that people don’t know this, practically everyone who works with trees, wood or furniture knowns that, seeing that Redwood is one of the most used types of wood for furniture and houses.”_

_“maybe he was new to the job?” Gus suggested. “I’m not trying to undermine you, it’s just possible.”_

_“true, but no. because when he showed me the nightstand, I was slightly willing to give him the a chance, so I asked if he was completely sure that it was Redwood. And he was probably not new, seeing that he called himself a junior manager. His nametag said the same thing.” She explained. “so either he is just faking his rank and he is actually brand new, or-“_

_“or he doesn’t work there at all.” Gus said in realization._

_Willow clicked her fingers. “exactly.”_

_“huh, seems like you DID find good information.” He pointed out. “anything else?”_

_The blue-haired witch shook her head. “sadly no. then I tried to find you and the spell took hold of me.”_

_“so, we’ve got a dimension-bending shop, with suspicious people walking around and employees who don’t really know what they are doing. “he shrugged. “It’s not much, but we can work with it.”_

_“hopefully, yeah. We should start planning out our next step. We better do it now, seeing that I’ll be stuck in bed tomorrow.” Gus nodded in agreement._

_The rest of the day was spend planning out their next move. Hours had passed until they realized that the sun had gone down and it was dark outside. Gus whistled. “we have been busy for a while, sheesh.”_

_Willow nodded. “yeah, we should stop for today. Maybe go get some rest, we’ll need it for tomorrow.” Gus nodded as he stood up to clean up the mess they had made with al of their papers and possible plans._

_When Willow got up to help him, she had to suppress a groan. She didn’t really feel really well physically, but that shouldn’t hold her back. Sadly, or good, for her, Gus noticed. “hey, are you okay?”_

_“I’m fine.” Willow waved it off. “nothing to worry about. Just a little tired.”_

_Gus frowned. “you more then just a little tired Willow. You look exhausted. And it’s probably caused as a aftereffect by the mind-field leaving your body. You should go to bed immediately.” He argued._

_“Gus, I’m fine!”_

_“NO, you’re not! You look ready to collapse right on the spot. You also get really cranky when you’re tired and I don’t really want to deal with that to be honest. To bed with you, now!”_

_“sheesh, fine MOM!” Willow reacted, proving his point without meaning to. And even though she didn’t want to, she headed over to her room, grumbling all the while._

_Gus sighed as the door closed behind the witch. She had a stressful day and she needs her rest. When he had finished gathering all of their incriminating stuff, he hid them underneath the couch cushions. ‘not the best hiding spot, but it’ll have to do.’_

_Realizing he needed some fresh air after being inside the same room for multiple hours, he opened the glass door and stepped out onto the balcony. On the balcony were two chairs and a small table. It was surrounded by a metal railing, preventing people to fall off. He walked past the chairs and leaned on the railing. He let his thoughts surround him, most of them were focused on today’s events._

_‘Today really didn’t go as planned.’ he sighed again. ‘first we had our informant ditching on us, I should probably still look into that, and then we had the whole problem situation with that damn mind-field. Could it have gone possibly even worse?!’ he thought as he covered his face with his hands. ‘and Willow wasn’t helping either.’_

_He shook his head at that. ‘no, I shouldn’t be thinking like that. Her outbursts weren’t her fault. One of the possible side effects of entering a mind-field and being unprepared for it, is that your emotions almost get pumped up to ten. So I can’t blame her.’_

_He frowned as he then looked at the view. Their room was pretty high up, so they had an amazing look over a part over the city. But even though it looked so nice, no smile could be found on the witch’s face. ‘I can only hope that tomorrow goes better. Which I highly doubt, seeing that Willow will be stuck in bed almost the whole day.’_

_He then banished the busy thought from his mind, and enjoyed the view._

_Willow meanwhile, had her nightdress on and was laying in her bed, her thoughts keeping her awake. ‘I should have been so rough towards Gus, he was only trying to help me.’ She frowned. ‘and I shouted like a complete jerk. What kind of friend am I?!’_

_She hit her pillow in frustration. ‘and the earlier outbursts at the shop aren’t helping either of us. Gus’s main reasoning is that it was because of the mind-field, but the outburst about…. ‘her’, had nothing to do with that.’_

_She face-planted into the cushion. “what am I going to do?” she asked herself out loud. “I thought I was over her, turns out I’m not.” She huffed. “I just don’t understand. It has been years, and I still can’t let her go. What’s wrong with me?!”_

_She let out another sigh “Dad always told me that it was dangerous, just didn’t realize how much of that was true. The moment she left, my world came crashing down. I just don’t understand, why did she do it? Why?! Even after all these years, I still don’t have an explanation. We’re doing what’s right, we want the people of the Boiling Isles to be free, not restricted like that tyrant. So, why did she leave us, leave me? Did I do something wrong? Could I have done more?”_

_A third sigh left her. ‘I shouldn’t say that, all the others say it was fully her decision and that I wouldn’t have been able to change it.’ She then shook her head to get out of the down funk and looked out the window of her bedroom. ‘I shouldn’t think about it anyway, we have a busy day tomorrow, and the more sleep I get now, the less I’ll be stuck in bed.’_

_She then turned around, laying on her back, and fell into a, hopefully, dreamless sleep._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OOF, Wilow has some issiues to work through that's for sure.
> 
> hey everyone,  
> Sorry this chapter is really late, I have been working on two of my other stories, (The Human of Hell and Road Of The Toad, if you want to check them out.) and school isn't helping either.  
> I'll try to update as much as I can. at first I was able to do it weekly, now... I'm not sure. but hopefully it will be in at least two weeks.
> 
> anyway, got to go. thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed.
> 
> Gr Elementalwriter


	7. The Meeting (part 2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope You Enjoy.

Chapter 7.

“And that’s what happened on the first day we arrived.” Gus said towards the rest of the people gathered around the meeting table, rounding up the explanation of their first day. They did leave out some bits, like Willow’s outbursts and all that. There were only certain people who were allowed to know that.

Bump nodded in approval. “good, very good. I see some people are better at their tasks then others.” He said as he glared towards the Blight Twins. Both definitely felt the jab and frowned.

“Ass.” Edric whispered.

“Jerk.” Emira added.

“I’m sorry, what was that?!” Bump called out.

Edric held up his hands. “Nothing, Nothing. Nothing you need to concern yourself with old man.”

The only good that it did, was pissing of Bump even more. “If there is any problem with how I treat my people or how I give orders, I would like to hear it being said to my face. And NOT being whispered behind my back, got it!?”

“oh you want to hear it?!” Emira exclaimed. “well, do you have a few hours? That might be enough time for me to go through everything I want to say about you!” she said as she partly leaned over the table, glaring at Bump. He obviously didn’t like that and started to draw a spell circle in the air. Edric, of course, immediately drew his own. Amity also looked ready to jump up and help her siblings.

Feeling the tension, Luz spoke up. “guys, guys. Calm down. We’re not here to fight. We’re here to discuss missions, not to fly at each other’s throats! So, please, calm, down. Alright?” Bump didn’t pay any attention to her, while the twins looked like they considered it.

“Luz is right.” Eda said. “We’re here for important business, not for petty fights. Everyone back down.” She looked towards the twins. Noticing her look, both twins sat down again. Amity was still kind of tense, for obvious reasons. “I said everyone! That includes you, Bump!”

The former principle looked at her, dumbfound. “what!? I’m not backing down Edalyn, they insulted me and-“

“YOU said that you wanted to hear the criteria towards you. we all heard that loud and clear. And yes, she was rude, but with you constantly accusing them of doing a terrible job isn’t helping your case here.” The Owl Lady argued. “Now, back, down!” At that, Bump dispelled his circle reluctantly.

Luz noticed that when he did that, Amity relaxed as well, seeing that the danger was over. ‘ _Eda wouldn’t let any harm come to any of us. And even if someone tries anything, either Eda will go after them, or the rest of the group will fight back.’_

Eda then cleared her throat. “Now that that is behind us, please continue you two.” She spoke towards Willow and Gus. The female witch nodded back.

“okay, so, we had planned that Gus would go out and keep a close eye on the shop, while not attracting any unwanted attention.”

“Yeah, we wanted to keep it simple, seeing that Willow would be stuck in bed all day.”

“but It went a little bit different than we had planned.” The blue-haired witch added. “because, the very next day, I was totally fine. Not tired, Not sick, nothing.”

Eda hummed. “that turned out good. You two were very lucky. I take it you changed the plan?”

Gus nodded. “the plan was originally that I would scout the outside of the building, but now that Willow was able to participate, that was a good game changer. The plan then was that Willow would watch the shop from the outside and ask some passersby about the location, while I would head in, of course wearing different disguises, and looked around for any extra incriminating evidence. Anything that would give us an advantage against them.” He explained. “I discovered that not every single employee was as unknowing as Charlie, very few of them actually were. I asked them about all different types of wooden furniture and there were clear differences between some of them. For that, I first asked Willow about the types of wood and how to recognize them.”

“wait, wait, wait.” Emira called out. “hold on a second. Since when does Willow know so much about furniture?”

“yeah,” Edric added. “It’s not like she studied for it.”

“maybe not, but I DID study plant magic.”

If question marks could appear above their heads, they would have. “huh?” the twins reacted simultaneously.

Willow facepalmed at that. “hellooo. Plant magic, trees, wood, wooden furniture. And one of my dad’s is a woodworker.”

“oooooohh.” The twins responded. “I guess that makes sense.” They then looked at each other, both noticing their perfectly timed responses. “stop that. No seriously, stop that. NOW!” Hearing that everything they said was in perfect sync, they covered their mouths, preventing any sound form leaving.

The rest could only laugh at the twins antics. Soon, even the twins joined in. Bump was the only one not laughing, but they were used to that. The man barely smiled.

After everyone was done laughing, they went back to business. “so, yeah. That day worked out way better than we thought. Later that night, we planned to take a REALLY close look at the shop.”

Willow nodded. “indeed. I was SO relieved when we noticed that I wouldn’t be bedridden for the entire day.”

Luz smiled at that. “it’s good to hear that you didn’t have to suffer through that Willow. I know I wouldn’t be able to handle it.”

“Yeeeeaah, about that.” Everyone, except Willow, shot Gus a confused look. “turns out that I was kind of wrong about the effect taking hold the very next day.”

“what do you mean?” Eda asked. “wasn’t that a good thing?”

Willow nodded. “Yeah, it was, for the next day. But the day after that-….”

_Flashback:_

_“UUUUUGH.” Willow groaned. She felt like absolute shit. She was incredibly tired, like she had run multiple marathons around Bonesborough. Not only that, but she also had a major headache, mostly preventing her from moving to a certain degree. The sweat was dripping from her forehead._

_Footsteps could be heard outside her door. “Willow? Are you okay?” Gus knocked on her door. “seriously, are you feeling well? You groaned pretty loud.” Receiving no answer, he slowly opened the door and peeked his head in. “Willow?” he then saw the state of his friend. “holy Titan! Willow!” he ran to her bed. “you look terrible.”_

_Willow groaned again. “and I feel like it as well.” Gus put his hand on her forehead._

_“woah, you’re burning up. How in de heck did you get so sick all of a sudden?”_

_Willow weakly shrugged. “don’t know. All I know, is that I won’t be coming out of bed today.”_

_Gus huffed. “If I didn’t know any better I would say that you are suffering from the effects of….oh.”_

_“What?”_

_The male witch rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m afraid that you are suffering from the effects of the mind-field from two days ago.”_

_Willow just looked at him. “how? You said that if I would suffer from it, it would have been yesterday.”_

_“true.” Gus started thinking about how this could happen to her. how the effect had not taken place yesterday, but today. “I..think..that, because you were already kind of trained to resist mind magic, the after-effects were slowed down. And that you were constantly tense about it getting to you, was probably blocking it as well.” He explained. “but now that you have calmed down, it has every chance to get you.”_

_Willow huffed. “that sounds logical, but I don’t like it.”_

_“Understandable,” the male witch said. “I guess we have to change to plan for today, seeing that you are stuck in bed for the day.”_

_“we don’t need to, we can just move the plan to tomorrow.” Willow suggested._

_Gus shook his head. “No we can’t, we have to start traveling home tomorrow. We have to act, TODAY.” He sighed “and it looks like I’m going to have to do this on my own.”_

_Willow practically shot up from the bed, only to fall back down when her body protested. She hissed in agony. When the pain had subsided enough, she spoke up. “You can’t do that, It’s too dangerous!”_

_“I have to! We need to finish the mission! We can’t return empty handed!” The male argued. “I NEED to do this, for the rebellion.” He said as he walked away._

_“Gus, wait!” The female called out._

_Gus sighed. “You’re not changing my mind Willow, not this time. I’ve made my decision and I’m not backing down.” He spoke as he walked through the bedroom door. “If you need something, use the emergency scroll in your nightstand and I’ll come back immediately.” He closed the door._

_“Gus! Wait!” Willow shouted. “hold up!” she tried to get up again, only to fall down again. She heard the ‘front door’ open. “GUS!” the only response she got was the exact same door closing, followed by silence. “DAMN IT!” she exclaimed as she hit her pillow with her fists. And because of the sudden movement, her headache hit her like a rouge chariot, almost knocking her unconscious. “today is going to be great!” she almost growled._

_As Gus walked towards his target, he thought about Willow’s reaction. ‘I know she’s just worried about me, I don’t really blame her seeing the situation. But she also needs to have some faith in me. I’m not the twelve year old student at Hexside, I’m a rebel, a witch trained for combat, for spying. I’m able to take care of myself.’_

_He let out a sigh. ‘let’s hope that she doesn’t do anything stupid. I don’t want her leaving the bed until she feels better. Knowing her, she is going to try to get up and follow me.’ He huffed at that. ‘she needs to stay in bed, for her own wellbeing. And if she needs anything or something is wrong, she can sent the emergency scroll.’_

_The emergency scroll was mostly like other paper scrolls. But they had one key difference: when you had written the message, you had to burn it in magical fire, and it would practically teleport to the dedicated person. They were really exclusive and cost a lot of snails. It was also very illegal to make them without an official permit._

_Luckily they didn’t really care about the rules, so they produced their own. Each person on a mission was given one, just in case._

_A few moments later, Gus arrived in front of the store. He quickly stepped into a nearby alleyway. ‘time to dress up, I guess’ he thought as he drew a spell circle around himself. A flash and some smoke later, he looked like a complete different person. His skin looked multiple shades darker and his hair was gray with some darker streaks. And instead of the slim build he had earlier, he now had a belly. Some of his facial features had also changed: instead of the slight bit of facial hair that he had before, he now had a full grown beard and a mustache._

_‘this’ll do.’ He thought. He stepped out of the alley, and headed towards the shop. Right before he headed inside, he looked to the side alley which lay next to the little building. He took a quick peek to look for any suspicious activities._

_The day before, when Willow was scouting the front of the store, she had spotted movement in the alleyway. Taking a quick look, she had spotted multiple witches carrying boxes through a back entrance of the shop. At first glance, you would think that it were just employees who were carrying in new furniture. But on some of them, Willow was able to spot the Royal Logo. It was a logo which was only put on deliveries and packages which were either send by the Emperor himself, by someone of high rank in the Emperor’s coven or one of the Coven leaders. Why would boxes of furniture, have that logo on them? It just didn’t add up._

_Sadly, when Gus looked, no one was there. No deliveries, no people walking around, nothing. He frowned. ‘It was too good to be true.’ Seeing that this would help him. he walked back towards the front and entered the store. The moment he did, the slight pressure at the back of his mind returned, just like all the other times it did when he had entered. ‘well, the field is still up. Don’t know if that is good or bad news.’ He thought._

_As he made his way through the store again, he kept a close eye for any hints. Anything that could indicate where he would be able to find evidence. And as he walked passed the wardrobes again, he spotted something that was definitely worth investigating. The exact same men, who were standing around two days ago, were back in the exact same spot. Walking around with stone cold faces._

_Gus quickly passed them so he wouldn’t attract any attention. ‘Need to look into that. This isn’t a coincidence anymore.’ As he continued on his way through the store, he sadly couldn’t find anything else which even looked remotely like something important._

_‘might as well take a closer look at by the wardrobes.’ He thought to himself. As he walked into the mentioned aisle, the gazes of the men immediately focused on him._

_Trying to play it of cool, he greeted them. “Good day, gentleman. Beautiful day, isn’t it?” all he got in a response from one of them, was a grumbled huff. The reaction from the other wasn’t much better._

_“hm, yeah. Sure.” He said with a cold voice._

_Seeing if he could get some possible information from them, Gus kept talking. “so how are you two doing?” again, only one of them reacted._

_“what should that matter to you?” he said._

_Gus pretended to be offended. He huffed. “Oh, I’m sorry that I care about other people. Sheesh.” ‘that sounded way better in my head.’ He thought to himself._

_The silent one responded this time. “we’re fine old man, now move on.”_

_“sadly for you, I won’t.” the rebel argued. “I’m looking for a new wardrobe and I’m not leaving without one.”_

_“Oh yeah?!” the, at first, silent one replied as he rolled up his sleeves. “We’ll see about tha-“ he got interrupted by his friend._

_“don’t.” he calmly spoke. He then turned back towards Gus. “Go get what you came for and then leave.” He said in a way that left no room for discussion._

_“okay, okay.” Gus said as he raised his arms in defeat. “But first I need to find the right one. I’m not just gonna take any of them.” He said as he walked further down the aisle. As he walked, he could feel their eyes following him, skeptical. Trying to throw of their suspicion, he actually started looking at the furniture._

_But his mind was somewhere else entirely. ‘those two are definitely hiding something, there is no doubt about it now.’ He thought. ‘but what? The source of the mind-field? Weapons? Secret plans?’ he frowned. ‘probably not. I mean, what kind of idiot would hide something important inside a furniture shop? But then again, we’re talking about Belos here. He is known to pull of tricks like this.’_

_As he walked through the aisle, he kept a close eye on the two men. Sadly that wasn’t as easily done as said, seeing that they kept a close eye on him as well. Luckily, from the few glances that he was able to take, he was able to notice something._

_No matter where the two were standing, they always kept a close eye on one particular closet. A pearl white, and antique looking one at. Thinking that he would probably be able to get more information out of them, he approached the item that they seemed to be so protective about._

_He had kind of expected it, but still… when he arrived at the white wardrobe, he jumped when one of the men shouted: “HEY, what are you doing there!”_

_He quickly turned around and saw them both approach towards him. remembering his act, Gus started stuttering. “I….I…what? I was just looking at it.”_

_“that’s none of our business grandpa.” The rude one stated. “what IS our business though, is that no one touches that closet.”_

_Gus raised a brow. “why is that? I’m very confused on why you would need guards or something, on a simple wardrobe.”_

_The other ‘guard’ sighed. “this wardrobe is a one of its kind, a special gift to the most powerful and important witch on the Boiling Isles.”_

_‘they probably mean Belos.’ The disguised witch thought to himself._

_“and it’s our job,” the man continued. “to protect it. It is the masterpiece of the shop. And seeing who it is destined for, if any damage was done to it, it would cost us our lives.” He explained. “so if you could move on, that would be very much appreciated.”_

_Gus nodded and shrugged in agreement. “I goes that that’s understandable.” He got a curious look on his face. “and if you don’t mind me asking, who is it for exactly? Because there are a lot of powerful and important witches on the Isles.”_

_The calm one shook his head. “Sir, if I told you, I would have to kill you.”_

_The rebel gulped at that. “oof, that sounds serious.” He started walking away and waved. “well, I won’t be keeping the two of you away from your job anymore. Good luck, to the both of you.”_

_He stopped further down the aisle, and pretended to look at some more wardrobes. While he did that, he could still feel them looking at him every so often. He could sometimes even catch what they were talking about, seeing that one of them was getting more and more annoyed. Nothing really interesting, but one word kept coming back. Package._

_After about another half hour of ‘looking around’, he said loudly: “Dang it! None of this is what I’m looking for.” He rubbed the back of his head. “I really thought they would have it. This is the sixth shop that doesn’t have it.” he shrugged. “Maybe I’ll have more luck at the next one.”_

_As he walked away, he could, again, feel their eyes following him. making it believable, he actually walked towards the exit. But the moment he turned around a corner, making them lose sight of him, he stopped._

_‘That. Was. Some of the biggest load of crap I have heard in a while.’ He thought to himself. ‘even if they were talking the truth about it being a ‘present’ for ‘the most powerful and important witch of the Boiling Isles’ they wouldn’t have been THIS protective over it. Besides, why would Belos want a closet like that? It looks very expansive and antique, but he literally has the top artists of the Isles lined up, almost begging him to tell them to make something in his honor. So why would he even want this particular one?’ he added. ‘It just doesn’t add up. It has to have something inside it or something that is very important to him. or it’s made from some ancient magical alloy which he needs for one of his freak projects. I need to get a closer look, especially on the inside.’_

_He frowned. ‘but with those two in front of it, I don’t have even the slightest chance. They watch that thing like Quadro-hawks watch their prey. I need something to distract them with.’ He started looking around, anything would do as long as it got them away from that thing._

_he then spotted a fire-alarm sitting in one of the pillars. He hummed as he thought of a plan. ‘that could work, but it needs to be pulled of flawless, otherwise it won’t work.’_

_He walked deeper into the shop, but mainly further away from the exit and the two ‘guards’. After about a minute or so, when he thought he was far away enough, he looked around him. Spotting no one, he started his plan._

_The two men were walking around their destined area. They had gotten strict orders which they had to follow, otherwise they would be done for. Everything went pretty well so far, no one had asked any questions, except that one guy. But that didn’t really matter, seeing that everything was going according to the plan. They didn’t have to wait long anymore before their task was done. And they had kept their ‘objective’ in eyesight whenever they could, so everything was going smoothly._

_“ugh.” One of them said. “how much longer do we have to stay here?! I know what we are doing is important, but this is really getting on my nerves!”_

_The other one sighed. “calm down, my friend. The ‘package’ shall arrive soon, and when they come to pick up the closet, it will go with them and our job will be done.”_

_The first one huffed. “we better get a promotion for this.”_

_The second one let out a small laugh. “for guarding a closet? I highly doubt it.”_

_It was silent for some time after that, until…._

_“FIRE! EVERYBODY RUN!” at the same time as that shout, the fire alarm went off. “EVACUATE THE SHOP IMMIDIATELY!”_

_As people started coming from the back of the shop, screaming their lungs out, the second closet-guard managed to stop one of them. ”what’s going on?!” he asked._

_“isn’t that obvious?!” the man responded, fear very much evident in his eyes. “A gigantic fire has started somewhere in the back and its spreading really fast!”_

_“so?!” the impatient guard called out as he walked towards them. “your witches! You should be able to put out the fire no problem!”_

_“don’t you think we tried!?” the customer cried out. “everyone who knew some sort of water spell tried to at least lessen the flames, but none of them worked! Someone even tried to extinguish it with a spell which only works on magical fire. And the moment that it didn’t work, someone pulled the fire alarm and we started running.”_

_“It must be some kind of cursed fire then, seeing that it’s not affected by anything, let alone stopped.” The calm guard concluded._

_“yeah, we thought the exact same thing and started running for our lives. And you two should do the same thing!” he called out as he started running again._

_“What do we do?” the second guard asked. “we have our mission, but I don’t want to burn alive.”_

_The other one was silent, he seemed to be thinking. After a few seconds, he spoke up:_

_“we need to leave, immediately.”_

_“what?!” the second one called out. “but our mission was-“It has changed, we are to leave immediately and leave the closet behind.” He said as he started heading towards the exit._

_His colleague frowned, confused. But he quickly gave in and shrugged. “eh, whatever.” He said as he ran towards the exit, afraid to be locked in with the fire._

_“Heh, that went way better than I thought it would.” Gus said to himself as he walked through the fire. He had taken of his disguise for comfort, and so he wouldn’t get magically exhausted. “Good thing that no one realized that it was an illusion. A very big and realistic one, but still just an illusion.”_

_He rubbed a hand through his wet hair. When he had started the ‘fire’ he hid inside it so no one would see him in the surrounding area. And when some witches had tried to put out the fire with blasts of water, which obviously didn’t have any affect, seeing that it was not really fire, he had gotten hit by some. When the first blast hit him, he had almost dropped the illusion from the sudden cold water which washed over him. cold, but worth it.”_

_He quickly made his way towards the wardrobe section._

_There it was, completely unguarded. He had freeway. “yes.” He cheered as he pumped his fist. “victory is mine.” He snickered. “and the rest constantly saying that the twins are the masters of distraction. More like ‘were’.” He spoke confidently._

_He then stood in front of the closet, hands on the doorknobs. He was almost vibrating with anticipation. He then exclaimed loudly. “they were SO set on guarding you, wonder what they were ACTUALLY keeping their eyes on.” He grinned._

_“Show. Me. Your. Secrets!” and at the last word, he threw the doors open for the dramatic effect._

_He let out a gasp._

_……_

_….._

_Nothing._

_…._

_…_

_“WHAT!” he shouted in anger, because in the closet, was practically nothing. The only thing in there were some shelves, and a small coat-rack in the back, form which hung one simple jacket. “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! ALL OF THIS EFFORT, AND I GOT NOTHING TO SHOW FOR IT!” he covered his face with his hands, in shame. “Willow is not going to like this, neither will the rest.”_

_He sighed. ‘Now I need to make my way out of the shop without anyone noticing, which is a whole heck of a lot harder than it sounds. And it even sounds difficult, so I’m pretty much screwed.’ He hit the side of the wardrobe in frustration, making the jacket inside swing back and forth, hitting the back of the closet._

_He was about to walk away, until he heard the sounds that the jacket made. ‘wait, why is there a jacket, in a closet, which is just standing in the shop, waiting to be picked up?’ he looked back towards the closet with a slight bit of hope coming back. He quickly started thinking. ‘the only reason anyone would hang anything in here, would be to-‘ he shoved the jacket to the side. “-hide something. Bingo!”_

_Behind the piece of clothing, on the backwall of the closet, was a small gray button. “well, well, well. Trying to hide something from me? Not today.” He said as he pressed the button. “_

_At first, nothing happened. But then some sort of mechanism could be heard, and the back panel moved inwards and then to the side, revealing a secret passage. “would you look at that. Turns out that Belos isn’t just busy with enhancing stores, but also furniture.”_

_The pathway itself was incredibly dark, not a single light could be seen. Gus didn’t care though._

_“ooooh, spooky.” He snickered. “Is this supposed to scare people or something? Because it’s not working.”_

_At that, he confidently took a step into the darkness._

_Meanwhile, Willow was still stuck in bed. All of her attempts to get out of bed and to help Gus had failed. She felt slightly better but not as much as she would have liked. She still felt like absolute garbage. ‘why does it have to be me?’ she asked herself. ‘out of everyone, it had to be me. The rest of the team would have been able to deal with this. The Twins would just work through it, Eda would probably cast some spell, probably illegal, which she learned from the healing coven or something. Luz would make a potion to lessen the effect, and Amity would keep it hidden that she was exhausted and try to soldier on. Gus would also do better, this is mostly caused by some kind of mind magic, and he would probably, literally, be able to fight it in his head.’_

_She sighed. ‘but me? I’m the one of us who can’t really handle something like this. All of the others also have big mental defenses to protect them. But I don’t really have that. I was never really able to build up a defense like them.’ She huffed in frustration. ‘the others build them from all kinds of things, from their talent, like Gus. Their rebellious side, like the twins and Eda. Or from determination, like Amity and Luz. I meanwhile didn’t have the talent, the rebellious side, or the determination like them.’_

_‘that’s mostly why I didn’t do all that well in the classes involving the mind and thoughts. They always told me that I was able to do it.’ She huffed again. ‘see how that turned out. if my mental defenses had been stronger, it wouldn’t have been able to take over.’_

_She then lay there, in silence. Thinking about what could have been done better or different._

_Just as she felt herself getting lost in her thoughts, she was hit with a weird sensation. It felt like her entire body was covered in goosebumps and a freezing chill went down her spine. It was followed by a weird push in her mind._

_Any other person would think that the mind-field was somehow taking over again. But Willow knew better, way better!_

_“oh, no.” she muttered. She turned her head in the direction of where the shop was located, where her friend was located at the moment. “Gus.”_

_She then heard the front door open, followed by heavy footsteps._

_Outside of the shop, a small public had gathered to watch the shop as the ‘fires’ roared on the inside. Among them, stood the two guards._

_“so what now?” one of them asked. “we have abandoned the mission and probably lost the package.” He grabbed his head in between his hands. “we’re so screwed.”_

_“quite the opposite.” The first one looked up from his hands, and saw his friend smiling._

_“what?!” he asked, very confused._

_“everything is going according to the plan.” He said as he looked at his watch. “the ‘package’ has arrived.” His smile grew slightly. “and now whatever happens is out of our hands.”_

_“sheesh, this is one long staircase.” Gus said as he walked further into the darkness. After walking on the pathway for a bit, he almost fell down multiple stairs. He definitely would have if he hadn’t used a light spell so he could see. It wasn’t much, but it was enough._

_As he went down, he thought that it was weird that he hadn’t triggered any booby-traps yet, which you would kind of expect by these kind of things. But he totally didn’t mind. The less inconveniences the better._

_After some time of walking, he arrived back on flat ground. how far does this thing go?” he asked himself. “because this is becoming pretty ridiculous.” As he kept walking, he suddenly noticed something in the distance._

_A small flicker of light could be seen somewhere further down the hallway._

_“finally, light.” He started running towards it, hope rising all the while. The light kept getting brighter the closer he got._

_And when he had finally arrived at the light source, he was…. Confused._

_He had arrived in a seemingly square room, it was incredibly dark and he couldn’t even see the walls._

_The only thing giving of light, was the candle standing on top of a table placed in the middle of the room. And when Gus squinted, he could see something else laying on the table. it wasn’t very big, but it did look even slightly important._

_As he walked over towards it, he could make out more and more details. And when he was standing in front of the table, he could see it clearly. They were documents. Documents with the royal seal. ‘jackpot.’ The rebel grabbed the papers of the table. “to be honest, I was kinda expecting more than this, but this will definitely do.” He then grinned. “I don’t think that Bump would mind if I took a quick peek.”_

_He opened the folder of papers. It’s not like anyone would know._

_His eyes widened._

_It was empty._

_The papers were completely blank. Nothing was written on them._

_He quickly went past every single one of them. There had to be one which had information or something, anything!_

_Nothing, nothing, more nothing._

_He started getting nervous. What the heck did he find?! Why was this here?! was THIS the package that the guards were talking about?! A frantic part of his mind started wondering all kinds of scenarios. ‘maybe it was written in invisible ink? Or you had to say a certain word for it to appear?’_

_A more rational part of his mind started wondering why this was even here in the first place. ‘why would you guard something that was completely useless? It just didn’t at up.’ He frowned. ‘unless-‘ he then saw something written down on the very last page of the pile, grinding his thoughts to a screeching halt._

_Hope rose in him. did he actually find something worthwhile?_

_The hope in him crashed through the floor as he read what it said._

_It said:_

_Gotcha._

_The moment he read it, the entrance to the room closed with a bang. He quickly turned around, fear growing. But he didn’t have time to think, as his arms were suddenly pulled back and trapped together by a binding-spell._

_Suddenly, laughter could be heard from the dark corners of the walls. “well, well, well. Looks like the trickster got tricked. How predictable.” Out of the shadows stepped a man, dressed in a uniform that Gus knew all too well._

_It was an officer in the Emperors guard, or at least, he looked like one. While he wore the same gray tunic and black pants, his cloak was slightly different: it had the red stripes on the shoulders, signifying the persons rank, but it also had some weird symbol on it which looked like a claw. His mask was also darker than normal._

_Gus didn’t think it was funny. “Who are you?!” he called out. “what do you want?!”_

_The person laughed. “isn’t it obvious? Wow, and they say that you are the brains of your group.” He mocked. “this was all a very wise plan, made by the Emperor himself, to capture one of you. and as you can see, it worked.”_

_The rebel huffed. “so the guards and the package? All fake?”_

_His opponent shrugged. “depends how you look at it: the guards were just members of the Emperor’s coven, fulfilling their mission. And they did it splendidly. So yes, they were kind of fake.” He explained. “but the package is very much real.”_

_Gus looked at him confused._

_The other snickered at that. “you see, my friend. YOU are the package.”_

_Gus gulped. ‘should have thought about that.’ He then puffed out his chest and glared at the man. “If you think you can just take me like this, you’re wrong.” He said as he got in a battle stance._

_The man laughed. “you don’t understand, do you?” he spoke. “we’re already being transported to the castle of the Emperor as we speak.”_

_Gus started sweating. “what do you mean? It feels like we are just standing still.”_

_“oh, that? That is just the Emperor’s magic at work.” The person explained. “I’ll explain it: as you maybe know, where we are right now, is some pocket dimension that the Emperor has created and infused into the closet. Anything going on the outside will go unnoticed by us, like, for example, being moved. By now, I’m sure that the others have collected the closet and are moving towards our destination.”_

_“At first I had my doubts about this plan, but it worked out absolute perfectly.” He added. “sure, your trick with the fire was kind of unexpected, but not unpredictable. The moment that you called up the illusion, we knew of it.” The guard shrugged. “another handy feature of the field: any spells used in its perimeter are registered. And seeing that we wanted you in here, I instructed the guards that they had to leave. and look who walked right in.”_

_The rebel huffed. “how did you even know we were coming?”_

_“that would be because of me.”_

_Out of the shadows stepped another figure. Gus’s eye’s widened. “Roger?!”_

_In front of him stood none other than the informant which they had to meet at their arrival. “what are you doing!?”_

_“isn’t it obvious?” he reacted. “I’m not with you, I was never with you. For the last six months, I was a spy working for the Emperor.”_

_A bit of silence fell over the room._

_“have you been hiding in the shadows all this time?” Gus asked. “as in, since the moment I entered?”_

_“…….yes. and a few hours longer to be honest.” He shrugged. “not the best time of my life. But whatever, this is beside the point.”_

_“why? Why are you doing this? You’ve seen what we are trying to do!”_

_“yes! And it’s wrong!” Roger shouted. “When the Emperor took over for the entire Isles, everything would have been a utopia: Covens ruling, no wild witches, proper use of magic. It would have been beautiful.” He huffed. “and then your little rebellion showed up and ruined everything. You started a war, a war which has been going on for the last years. And I’m sick of it.”_

_“I’ll admit, the whole war thing was not that great,” Gus said. “but it was Belos fault that it started to begin with. HE put ridiculous rules in place which just completely ruined life for a lot of people on the Isles. All we wanted was to bring hope to the Isles, hope of a better time.”_

_“a better time?!” the traitor shouted. “A BETTER TIME?! If you had allowed Belos to rule without problems, it WOULD HAVE BEEN A BETTER TIME! AND YOU RUINED IT!”_

_“how?!” Gus exclaimed. “how would it have been better?! Did you forget about all of the different rules which made witches look ‘superior’ to other beings?!”_

_“of course not.” He got as response. “why would I forget about the truth?”_

_A short silence fell over the room like a blanket._

_“WHAT!” Gus shouted. “what do you mean: the truth?! All sentient creatures are equal in rank. None is higher over the other!”_

_“and that’s were your wrong.” The spy replied. “witches have always been better than other creatures, they just forgot. WE have magic, something that is practically the thing that runs society. What do the others have? Take demons for example: all they got is maybe their size, claws and sharp teeth. They’re wild animals. Beasts! And sure, some of them can talk, but that doesn’t excuse them.”_

_“and all of the others aren’t any better.” He continued. “It was always obvious that witches were superior to all of the other species. But because we have been living together with them for so long, we have forgotten that fact.” He scoffed. “but Belos will bring back the order in the Isles. Witches shall rule over the Isles, like it’s supposed to be.”_

_Gus growled. “NO, IT NOT! We’re supposed to live in harmony with each other, and not look down on one another. What he wants is nothing but bad news for every single one of us. Before we know it, a war between demons and witches is started. On both sides, many will fall! And why? Because some nutjob thought it would be a good idea to turn demons into lesser creatures!”_

_“what you think doesn’t matter.” The ‘officer finally spoke up. “because you’ll be locked away in one of the deepest, darkest dungeons of the castle. If you’re lucky, you’ll end up in the Emperor’s personal dungeon.”_

_Gus frowned. “and what’s so special about that?” he said with a questioning gaze._

_Even though his face was covered by the mask, Gus knew that the guard was smirking. “only the most worthy of criminals are locked up there. You’ll be the personal prisoner of the Emperor himself. And that’s a great honor.”_

_“yeah, no. I would rather get out of here.” the rebel spoke as he drew a magic circle. He expected the bindings to dissipate, but they just seemed to glow even brighter at that. “what?!”_

_“oh, did we forget to tell you?” Roger said mockingly. “those bindings block your magic. You’re completely at our mercy.” He then shot a small lighting-spell at the prisoner, shocking him down onto his knees. The poor witch let out a cry from the pain. “and when we have delivered you to the Emperor, I will return to the rebellion and tell them that you were caught in action and I couldn’t save you.”_

_Gus gulped. ‘this doesn’t look good. In fact, it looks awful.’ He winced at the small aftershocks. ‘it also hurt pretty badly.’_

_He sighed. ‘only a miracle can help me now.’_

_He quickly looked towards the door, seeing if it would suddenly fly out of its hinges or something, and someone would come in and rescue him. Nothing happened._

_He let out another sigh. ‘looks like it really doesn’t work like in those stories afte-“ the door then chose to exploded into multiple pieces, making him fall to the ground from shock._

_Roger and the officer quickly ducked for cover, afraid of getting hit._

_The rebel saw one of the pieces of debris flying at him. he closed his eyes, waiting for the pain to come._

_But when it never hit him, he opened his eyes, which instantly grew in size, as he saw that a big vine had caught the door piece right before it would’ve hit him. he traced the vine back towards its origin, but he already knew who was responsible for this._

_And he was absolutely right, because in the empty doorframe stood,_

_“Willow!” you’re here!”_

_The witch in question walked into the room, followed by a bunch of plant vines and roots. She smiled. “of course I am. What kind of friend would I be if I was going to let you rot in a cell for the rest of your life?” she quickly ran over to him and dispelled the bindings holding him back._

_Right as he got up from the ground, the two heard groans coming from the other side of the room. The two other occupants of the room had also gotten up._

_“impossible,” the officer said. “we took care of you.”_

_Willow just scoffed at that. “you need more than some exhaustion and a bunch of guards to keep me down.” She smirked. “oh, by the way. The guards you send? They are kind of stuck in the hotel room. They may or may not be stuck on the walls and roof by a bunch of vines and guarded by some giant Venus Flytraps, and they are pretty hungry.” She shrugged. “They learned to not mess around with plants, that’s for sure.” Gus gave her a questioning look as she mentioned the guards._

_“yeah, these two send guards to our room a certain time after you left. But I already suspected something was of before that.” She explained. “after I kicked their butts, I immediately went looking for you, knowing that you were in trouble. Then I saw this escort of guards pas by, and thought: yeah, that’s it, because why else would a bunch of guards escort a closet? Then I attacked the guards, found the button, and races down here and broke the door with brute force. And you know the rest.”_

_Gus nodded, and then frowned. “wait, how are you even able to move right now? Last time I saw you, you were a total wreck.”_

_Willow rolled her eyes. “sheesh, tone it down on the subtility will you.” she then gave a small smile. “let’s just say that I found a way to finally build a solid mental defense, and before I knew it, I felt as good as new.” She grinned. “the moment I realized you were in grave danger, that feeling just manifested in my mind as a fortress.”_

_“wow, so you’re saying that your protective instincts caused you to develop a defense?” he had stars in his eyes._

_His friend shrugged. “basically.”_

_“yeah, yeah. Are you two done talking?! Then we can get back to business!”_

_The two barely had any time to react, as a spell was hurled at them. Willow responded by sending vines towards their opponents. They managed to grab Roger, but the officer somehow managed to completely dodge them._

_He quickly called up a blade made from magical energy and cut through the plants and freed Roger almost instantly. Immediately after that he drew a magic circle and fired a lightning bolt right at the rebels, which was quickly followed by a fireball from the traitor._

_Willow used on of the roots to block the lightning, luckily plants weren’t conductive. But she knew that her plants wouldn’t be able also block the fireball, to not even mention that they would be obliterated by it._

_As she braced for the impact, Gus quickly jumped in front of her. and as fast as he could he called up a force field to absorb the impact. As the projectile exploded, he didn’t even flinch._

_“our turn.” With determination shining in his eyes, he drew a spell, gathering magic in his hand. When the spell was completed, he threw the formed orb right at his enemies._

_Not knowing if it was going to explode or something, the officer quickly threw up a barrier._

_Big mistake._

_When the orb hit the shield, it indeed exploded, but not the way they expected. The moment it hit, it seemed to cause some sort of shockwave, which spread around the room. Willow and Gus weren’t affected by it, neither was Roger. But the officer wasn’t._

_The moment the wave reached him, he seemed to get hit by some electrical shock, which made him let go of his barrier. He cried out at a sudden weird feeling flooding his body. Immediately trying to go into the offence, he drew a spell, ready to repay the favor._

_Imagine his confusion, when the circle would take form. “WHAT!? WHAT IS THIS!?”_

_Gus laughed. “that, my friend, is a highly powered spell, which when it comes in contact with someone’s magic, blocks their magic completely for a certain amount of time.” he shrugged. “highly illegal, but then again, I’m a rebel.” He fired another spell, knocking the man unconscious._

_Roger huffed. “You’re not safe yet, you know that right?”_

_Willow shrugged. “eh, we are mostly. I’m mean, as far as I know, you’re not very powerful.”_

_Roger growled as he hurled a magic blast at the two rebels. Barely even blinking, Gus threw up another barrier, blocking it without problems. “I think we should round this up. What about you?” Gus asked his companion._

_The blue-haired witch nodded. “let’s finish this and get out of here.”_

_At that, Gus drew another spellcircle and fired a blast of blue magic at the spy._

_Roger threw up a shield. But it didn’t do anything because it was immediately smashed by roots hitting it with the force of wrecking balls._

_And with no defenses up, the spell hit its target, knocking the man into the wall behind him. as he’s dazed, Willow quickly used her roots to trap him. As the man struggled to escape, she walked over towards him, glaring all the while._

_Roger glared back at her as she stood in front of him. “what?” he sneered._

_“you know what Roger?” Willow started. “since the moment you arrived at the rebellion, I didn’t trust you. you gave of a weird aura, which made me feel uncomfortable. And I wasn’t the only one. Amity felt it as well, and Luz had her suspicions.” She grabbed his head and looked him dead in the eyes. “and now I know that we were right.”_

_He grumbled. “what are you going to do with me? If you want to take me with you and interrogate me for information, you’ll not be getting any.”_

_Gus walked up next to Willow. “Nah, the less we’ll have to see your face, the better.” He grinned. “instead, I’m going to remove your memories of the rebellion.” He said as he drew a blue circle in the air and stuck his right hand through it, encasing it in a blue glow._

_Roger’s eyes widened to the size of dinnerplates. “WAIT, WHA-“ he was cut of by Gus putting his hand over his face, by which he started the spell._

_The blue energy started to spread more, but the main focus was on the traitors forehead. The witch in question started trashing around, trying to escape from the spell. But the vines didn’t allow him, he was completely stuck._

_This continued for maybe another minute, then the spy stopped moving. A few seconds passed and Gus pulled his hand away._

_Roger’s eyes were glazed over and they seemed to be staring into space._

_“you can let him go.” the male rebel spoke. Willow nodded as she released him, and the spy crumbled onto the floor like a ragdoll._

_“Wow. Are you sure you only removed his memories?” Gus nodded in response._

_“Very sure.” He then started running towards the exit and waved for her to follow him. “come on! We have to get out of here before any of them wake up.”_

_The two quickly ran through the dark hallway and up the stairs. It didn’t take long for the two to reach the end. As the two exited the white closet, they saw that the guards which Willow had knocked out, were still down for the count. Seeing the opportunity, they made sure to get as far away as possible, as fast as possible._

_End Flashback:_

“then we headed towards our hotel room, grabbed our stuff, and left town almost immediately.” Gus finished.

Eda nodded in approval. “well, done. The both of you.” she said with a grin.

A slam was heard. Everyone looked over and saw that Luz had sprung up from her chair and had slammed her fist onto the table. “I knew something was wrong with the guy!” she called out in anger. “If I had acted on those suspicions, we could have avoided all of this!” she almost growled. “If I ever see him again, I’ll-“

“Luz, that’s enough.” The Owl Lady interrupted. “you can’t blame yourself for something like this. He had the chance to change when he so called ‘joined’ us, but he didn’t. It was his choice, and you can’t change anything about that.”

Calming down, Luz sat down back onto her chair. She then felt a comforting hand on her back. She looked over and saw that it was Amity. “hey,” the witch said. “you’re not to blame for this. I also felt that something was off with him, and I also didn’t act on it. we both screwed up in that department, you’re not alone.”

Luz smiled. “thanks Ams.” She gave her a sideways hug. “you always manage to cheer me up.”

The human didn’t notice, but the slightest blush formed on the witch’s cheeks as she said that. And if the others noticed, they didn’t react.

“anyway,” Bump interrupted, wanting to get back on track. “it’s good to hear that the mission was a success. We didn’t get what we came for, but we got rid of a spy and that’s good news.”

Eda nodded in agreement. “good thing we got rid of him before he told the Emperor where we’re hiding, otherwise we had to move.”

“yeah, about that.” Edric spoke up. “how didn’t he do that already? I mean, all he has to do is walk outside the bubble and he can figure out where he is from there.” Emira nodded, equally confused.

“Well, you see,” she stopped as she saw Amity raise her hand. “yes, Amity.”

The girl looked at her confused, until she noticed her arm. She quickly pulled it down with a heavy blush. “sorry, old habits die really hard, I guess.”

Emira looked at questioningly. “It has been years since you went to Hexside. How does that even make se-“

Amity glared towards her. “shush!” she then turned back towards Eda. “please continue.”

“No, no. you explain it to your siblings.” The older witch said as she rested her head on her hands. “I want to hear this.”

Amity nodded. She then took a deep breath and went into school-mode, as the rest liked to call it.

“the reason why he wasn’t able to tell Belos were we are, is because he wasn’t allowed to know.” She explained. “When people are brought here for the first time to join our rebellion, they are wearing a blindfold, enabling them to see anything. They are also checked for any tracker spells.

“when they arrive, they are not allowed to leave the bubble until the higher-ups tell them. If they want to go on missions, they are send to their destination through a spell. If they want to come back, they have to use the magic scroll which they were given before they left.”

“only people of a certain rank are allowed to know were our base is, including all of us. Which is why we don’t have to travel like them. Roger wasn’t the right rank to know our location, and you can’t tell what you don’t know.”

When the witch was done talking, she was slightly out of breath. The others didn’t even know if she even breathed once during the speech.

The twins looked at her, still confused. “how do you even know all that?” Edric asked.

His younger sister gave him a deadpanned look. “I know that, because I actually went to team orientation when we were trained. Unlike you two.”

“Wait,” Emira spoke. “you all knew this?”

Luz, Willow and Gus nodded.

“Yep.”

“Of course.”

“Basic information.”

“If you two hadn’t skipped out on the classes, you would have known this.” Bump sneered.

Edric glared back at him. “oh, I’m soooo sorry that we didn’t want to be bored to death.”

The former principal glared back, and the two parties seemed ready to jumped at each other’s throats.

“ENOUGH! ALL OF YOU!”

The three troublemakers slightly paled as they looked towards the one who shouted.

“I’ve had enough of the three of you continuously pulling at each other’s hair! You’re all adult and you fight like little kids! I don’t care about what kind of issues you have with each other, but this needs to stop!” she said as she slammed her hand down. “now sit down! I don’t want to hear anything from any of you unless spoken to, got it!?”

The three witches nodded in silence.

“Now that that’s done,” the Owl Lady continued. “who’s next?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey, guys.
> 
> I was a lot faster this time, wasn't I?  
> To be honest, I'm pretty happy with how the chapter turned out.
> 
> also, yes, I know that the story is almost just memories, but we're almost through it. just hold on a little longer.
> 
> If you want to tell me something, good or bad, use the comments.
> 
> Anyway, hope to see all of you in the next Chapter.
> 
> Gr Elementalwriter


	8. The Meeting (part 3)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy.  
> (Yes, I changed the name and the description.)  
> (also, almost 3K. HOW?!)

Chapter 8.

The others looked at each other.

“uhm, ”Luz spoke up. “I think it’s your turn Eda, seeing that the twins probably won’t be talking for a while.” She said as she pointed towards the, still slightly pale, twins. “and no one else went on a mission. So, yeah.”

The older women shrugged. “okay. but it’s not really exciting.”

“It’s not supposed to be interesting, it’s supposed to be informative.” Bump spoke up.

Eda immediately turned towards him. “did you forget what I said earlier?! I don’t want to hear anything from you, unless asked.” Bump shrunk back. “but, as much as I regret saying it, he’s right. This isn’t supposed to be a fun moment about sharing stories, this is about serious business.”

She took a deep breath and began. “as some of you may know, I went on a mission to check out a big base on the edge of the white forest. Rumors had been going around that it wasn’t just some training base for guards of the Emperors coven, but also a very important collection point for something. Seeing that we couldn’t pas up this opportunity, I took the mission and left for my destination.”

_Flashback:_

_The base of the guards wasn’t small in the slightest. It had multiple buildings with multiple floors. There was also a big open space filled with outside training equipment, a running track and an obstacle course. One building seemed to be the barracks where all of the recruits slept. And let’s not forget the tall chain-link fence guarding it, plus the guard towers at each corner._

_Eda observed it all as she stood on a small hill. She whistled. “looks like Belos puts a good amount of effort into training his guards.” She snickered. “and still, we keep beating them with no problems. Shame on you Belos. Shame. On. You.”_

_She watched the guards train, while others, who had already finished their training, walked around the perimeter. They kept an eye out for anything out of place, and watched over the rookies._

_But Eda wasn’t new to the concept of having to sneak around, and maneuvered like a cat around the fence. Her years of experience as a criminal prevented her from being caught. Sadly she couldn’t really find anything interesting like this. The only things that she was able to hear for example, was the guards talking about what was for lunch, or how some of the recruits were way too wimpy to be guards. Nothing important._

_Seeing that she wasn’t going to get anywhere this way, she snuck back to her hiding spot on the hill and waited until it was nighttime. While she was waiting, she thought about the last few days. She had mostly spend her time travelling, seeing that it was a four day trip, even while flying on Owlbert. But she could’ve been here earlier, if she didn’t need to avoid random patrols of guards flying and walking around._

_Since their last stunt at one of the training-bases, Belos had upped the security. He probably thought that this would keep the rebels away from messing with his property._

_He obviously didn’t know Eda very well._

_She missed the rest, mostly her students. She snickered at that thought. A decade ago, if someone would have told her that she would take multiple kids under her care and become their teacher, she would have laughed, asked if the person was completely mental and then pickpocket them._

_But now, she could imagine her life differently. The kids had changed her, especially Luz. The human had changed her in ways that she thought impossible. Before she came into her life, she was mostly selfish and didn’t really care about the things that others thought about her. but since then, she has been more careful in her decisions, especially if it involved the girl herself. As time continued, she had grown more and more attached to her._

_And that only grew when the others joined. It took some getting used to. But she adapted pretty quickly, and before she knew it she was treating them like they were family._

_One of the people who she grew closest to, next to Luz, was Amity. While she didn’t completely trust the youngest Blight in the beginning, which was mostly because of her family, she came to really like the girl. Also reminded Eda of her sister, but Amity also had a rebellious side which Lilith never had. And even though the kid was practically the definition of a know-it-all, she still loved her like a second daughter._

_Willow and Gus she already kind of knew, but she never really bothered to get to know them. But now she knew way more about them and respected them as well. At some point, she even went to Bonesborough and managed to sneak the parents from both of them out of town, and into their new home. And while it looked like the two would be much in battle, they were able to hold their own way better then she expected. And that was even before she started training them. The two were sometimes a little incompetent, but that fit with their charm._

_Edric and Emira were a special case. In a certain way she really cared about them, but was also incredibly annoyed by them at the same time. While she liked the way they would be able to pull pranks, which reminded her of herself. But they also mostly did their own thing and didn’t listen to almost anyone. There were only a few people who they sometimes listened to, and Eda was one of them._

_And of course there was Luz. Even though she had known the girl for years now, she still managed to surprise the old witch time and time again. When this whole thing started, she thought that the human would be in constant danger. And even though Eda knew that the girl could fight, she would probably try avoiding it._

_But that’s where she was wrong._

_Because Luz just dove into battle like it was nothing. Sure, the girl didn’t really like it all that much, but she wasn’t afraid to take a few punches and even throw some back. Over the years, the kid had really learned how fight and how to use her glyph’s in combat. And honestly, Eda could be more proud of her._

_Sure, she would have liked it more if Luz didn’t have to go through all this, but sadly they didn’t have any choice in that matter. But that didn’t mean that she couldn’t be proud of her._

_When she first met her, Eda didn’t really know what to think of the kid, but now it feels like she’s her own daughter._

_She sighed. Even though she has been gone for only a few days now, she missed them incredibly. Sure, their adults now, but that didn’t really change how she cared about them._

_The witch stayed in her thought, until she realized that the sun had gone down. ‘huh,’ she thought. ‘would you look at that.’_

_The base meanwhile was mostly dark, except for multiple rooms where you could see the lights on. The guard towers were also still active and were scanning the perimeter with what seemed to be big lights. Not only that, but guards were also patrolling around the fence._

_But Eda didn’t care, as she bounced from bush to bush. In no-time, she reached the fence._

_”okay, how am I going to get over this without being seen?” she whispered to herself. She couldn’t fly over with Owlbert, because she would be spotted almost immediately. Climbing over it wasn’t an option either, because it seemed like the fence was electrified by a lightning spell, and digging underneath it would take too much time. And she wouldn’t be able to go through it without causing too much noise._

_But she noticed something: the outfits of the guards didn’t look like they were isolated to be able to touch the fence without getting shocked themselves. So how do they get back in?_

_She decided to walk around the fence, and kept an eye out for anything that could get her in. Nothing appeared to be able to help her. at least, that what she thought until she saw one of the guards approach the fence._

_She quickly got closer to get a better view. ‘this could be my way in.’ she thought. And she wasn’t wrong, because, as the guard stood in front of the dangerous metal, he lifted his hand. As he did that, some sort of symbol started glowing on his glove._

_In response, the same symbol materialized on the metal and the chain-link started shifting. And a few seconds later, where there once was a solid chain-link fence, was now a gate. The guard quickly pushed it open and walked in. as he did that, one of the lights of the closest guard tower shone on him. When he was inside, he closed it, lifted his hand again and the gate morphed back into fencing. He then turned around and saluted towards the tower. The light then moved away from him and the guard continued on his way._

_‘would you look at that.’ The witch thought to herself. ‘Belos is learning his men new tricks.’ She frowned. ‘but now I have a problem. It’s obvious that the gate won’t open unless you have one of their gloves, and as soon as you walk through, you’re literally put in the spotlight. Which isn’t good for my case, so how do I get in without being noticed?’_

_She then saw the guards walking around and shrugged. ‘eh, why even try to come up with some big plan when I can keep it simple.’_

_She waited in her bush, until the next guard on patrol past her. that unlucky guard suddenly got grabbed and pulled into her bush. After a brief scuffle, the plant went silent. A few moments later, Eda popped out of the bush, wearing the uniform. Even though the uniform fit her strangely well, she was struggling to put the cowl over her head, seeing that it wasn’t made for the amount of hair she had._

_She grunted. “come, on. Fit, damn it!” she whisper shouted. After some struggle, she finally managed to completely hide her hair underneath the piece of clothing. Nodding in approval, she grabbed the last piece of her disguise from the bush, the mask._

_The witch glared at it like it could cut of her head at any moment. How much she hated that thing. As a little girl, she dreamed that she would one day wear one of these. But now? Now it was one of the symbols which went against everything she stood for._

_How much she just wanted to blow the damn thing up into a million bits. But she couldn’t. she needed it, no matter how much it hurt her to admit that._

_She sighed as she put it on. Her world was immediately put in darkness and the only light source she had, were the holes for the eyes. The witch frowned. ‘let’s do this.’_

_She walked up towards the place where the other guard entered. And just like him, she stretched out her arm and held out her hand. As she did that, she could practically feel the symbol glowing and the fence responded in kind. Before she knew it, the gate had formed in front of her._

_The witch quickly pushed it open. And almost immediately, one of the spotlights was on her. forcing herself to not wince at the sudden bright light, she saluted just like she had seen that one guard do._

_The next few seconds felt like hours to the rebellious witch. Did it work, or did they know something was off? Where there specific shifts in patrol? Did her hair exploded from its imprisonment? Did she screw this up and was there going to be a full out battle?_

_Luckily for her, none of that seemed to be the case, as the light moved away from her. she dropped the salute with a sigh and walked towards what seemed to be the guards station. A good place to start as any, seeing that every single trained guard in this complex lived there._

_As she walked, she looked around her. the base already looked slightly impressive from a distance, but to actually be there was a whole other thing. The building looked way bigger up close, and there seemed to be a lot more guards around then she thought there were earlier._

_But she was trying to not look suspicious, meaning that she couldn’t really get a good look at everything. She then focused on the building in front of her._

_It wasn’t small by any means, but it wasn’t extremely big either. It was big enough to house about seventy guards and maybe some other rooms, like probably some armory’s, and that was mostly it. but still, it was pretty big for just being a living space for the soldiers._

_Two guard were standing at the double doors, enchanted spears in their hands. The women calmly walked up to them, showing no emotion in her body language. The two guards meanwhile were practically statues, not moving a single muscle. And right as she was about the walk into the building, the spears blocked her._

_“halt.” The guard on the right spoke. “what business do you have here?”_

_Eda raised a confused brow underneath the mask. ‘okay, strict security, even here. but why?’ she smirked. ‘got something to hide Belos?’_

_Seeing that the guard was waiting on a response, she lowered her voice and spoke. “I need to get something from inside. It won’t take long.” Technically not a lie._

_The other guard huffed. “and we’re supposed to believe that? Seeing that you are out of the barracks in the first place means that you’re supposed to be on patrol. And you groups shift isn’t done yet. You still have about four hours to go.” he then pointed his spear towards the fence. “get back to your post and don’t come back until instructed.”_

_Eda huffed. This wasn’t going as she had hoped. She then got an idea. “that’s fine.” She said with a low voice. She turned around and was about to walk back towards her ‘post’. But not before she said a few simple words. “But don’t blame me when our superiors don’t get what they asked for.”_

_She was about to start walked, when suddenly: “wait, hold up!”_

_The Owl lady smirked. ‘how predictable.’ She turned back towards the guards. “yes?”_

_“what,” the guard on the right spoke up. “what do they want? We can instruct someone inside to get it.”_

_Eda crossed her arms. “I don’t have to answer that, seeing that it’s none of your busines. And no, I have to get it. they specifically asked me to do it.”_

_The guards seemed to look at each other. They quickly huddled together and started whispering, discussing what to do. The two then separated and the one on the left spoke. “even though its against the rules, you’re inside to get what you came for. But be quick about it. we can’t have the others think that we’re just going to allow this.”_

_Eda nodded and quickly walked past them. As she closed the doors behind her, she looked around her. it wasn’t much, but one theme seemed to be pretty common right of the bat._

_White._

_Every single wall was white with golden accents. The entrance was also fairly empty of practically anything. The only things that decorated it, were some Emperors coven symbols and what seemed to be a poster of Belos._

_The witch huffed, she seemed to do that a lot lately. ‘everywhere I go, his stupid face pops up one way or another. Talk about a big ego.’_

_She proceeded on her way, trying to find anything of importance. In the beginning, she didn’t really have any luck. Every single room she found was either a bedroom of sorts, or a storage closet. One time she found an armory, but that didn’t help much._

_What didn’t help either, was that there were a bunch of guards just walking around. Sure, they practically lived there, but that didn’t mean that she had to come face to face with one at every corner she turned._

_Luckily for her, she’s been able to talk her way out of multiple sticky situations. One asked for her name, rank and code number. She managed to slip away by saying that she was on a timed schedule and had no time for his questions._

_She couldn’t find anything. Everything looked the same! As she opened another door, she let out a frustrated sigh. “are you kidding me?” she said. “how many broom closets does this place need?!” she closed the door and walked further._

_The next few doors weren’t anything worth her time either. A few bedrooms, another armory and the thirteenth broom closet so far, which made her scream on the inside._

_But luck seemed to finally be on her side as she turned a corner, and saw a door being protected by a pair of guards. She grinned. ‘Jackpot!’ looking around, no none else was around, so she took her chance._

_She then walked towards the two. They apparently saw her, because Eda could see them tense up, ready to fight. As she stepped in front of them, one of them spoke up._

_“what do you want?” going by the voice, this guard was a women._

_Eda put her hand on her hips. “have you two not heard?” She exclaimed._

_“heard what?” the other one, a male, asked._

_The Owl Lady scoffed. “that there was this whole thing going on with every guard on the list needing to report in the forest.”_

_“list? What list?” the female asked._

_“the list that the superiors showed me.” The rebel pointed out like it was the most obvious thing in the world._

_Eda could almost see the male one frown under his mask. “that doesn’t make any sense. We were put here with the important task to guard this room, and they wouldn’t just send us away without replacements.”_

_“well, yeah. That’s why I’m here. while you two are away, I will take over your job for you.”_

_The guards didn’t look convinced. “why didn’t they tell us about this?”_

_The witch frowned under her mask. This wasn’t going as she had hoped. “probably some kind of communication issue. Nothing to worry about.” She shrugged. “but as I said, you two should hurry before you’re too late. And you probably don’t want that.” She hoped that that would finally get them moving._

_But the guards didn’t make a single attempt to leave. instead, they stiffened up and the women spoke up. “we are not moving from our post, until we are personally informed by our superiors.”_

_Eda huffed. “you really think that they’ve got time for that?! They have more important stuff than this.” The guards still didn’t move. She growled and threw up her arms. “why do I even try?!”_

_She then drew a spell circle so fast that the guards didn’t even have a chance at dodging. The spell hit them at full force, and they collapsed onto the floor with a thud._

_The rebel grinned. “good old sleep spell, works every time.” She tried to open the door, but found out it was locked. She huffed in annoyance. She then saw something shiny on the belt of one of the guards. It was a bundle of keys._

_As she grabbed it, she thought: ‘they really need to hide their stuff better. Someone could just walk up to them and steal it.’ a sly grin formed on her face. ‘someone like me.’_

_After some trouble with trying to find the right key, she finally opened the door._

_The room infront of her was pitch black, so she quickly cast a big lightspell and threw it into the room. As the orb come to a stop in the middle of the room, the space became clear to her. And what she saw, did not disappoint._

_The room was definitely different from the rest. For one instance, the walls were black instead of white, to not even mention that it was massive. It seemed to be some sort of information room. A bunch of filing cabinets stood along the walls. Some parts of the walls were covered in what seemed to be maps of a bunch of different places. And in the middle of the room stood a big table, surrounded by chairs._

_“well, hello.” Eda exclaimed as she threw her mask on the ground and released her hair from its prison. “what do we have here?” she was about to walk further into the room, when she remembered the two guards she had knocked out. The women let out a sigh as she waked towards them. “come on sleepyheads,” she said as she grabbed them by the collars of their outfit and started dragging them into the room. “can’t have the two of you ruining my little trip.”_

_She ended up hiding them in a broom closet. “okay, why does this place need so many of these things?!”_

_She then started looking around. She felt like a kid in a candy store. “time to get my nose in other people’s busines.”_

_As she went through the first bunch of cabinets, she mostly just found stuff that wasn’t worth her time. Bills for food and resources, daily summaries of what was going on in the base. The usual stuff._

_But when she got to the fifth one, she perked up._

_These were not a bunch of dumb papers,_

_These were messages between the different bases._

_She read through some. While some of them were just daily updates from certain camps, others were things like mission reports and messages from the superiors of the camps._

_As she went through more cabinets, she found al kinds of stuff. Blueprints, possible battleplans, summaries of all of the different trainings that the guards went through, everything. It quickly became clear to her that this was some sort of communications and information center. And not a small one either. There were reports from all over the Boiling Isles. From some of the smaller camps on the Titan’s feet, to some of the biggest bases on top of the Titan’s head._

_If this wouldn’t help the rebellion, nothing would._

_A few minutes later, she almost gone through every single cabinet, she had only a few left to go. when she got to the next one, the first bunch wasn’t anything. The second was pretty much the same. But when she was going through the contents of the third drawer, she stumbled upon something unusual._

_Most of the files seemed standard stuff, but one of them was called: ‘How to NOT be a rebel.’_

_“what even?” the witch said while frowning in confusion. “are they seriously SO afraid that people will betray them, that they had to make a file for it?” she grabbed it. “what does it even say?”_

_But as she pulled the file from its place, a small click could be heard. she quickly looked around, seeing if she somehow triggered a trap of some sorts. But instead of that, she saw a small hidden door in the wall open up, revealing a safe._

_Eda blinked. “uhm, okay.” She then made her way over towards it. “If this’ll be always this easy, then this will become really boring, real fast.”_

_Inspecting the safe, she found out that it was heavily reinforced, and possibly even magic proof. The lock however was just a regular twist-lock. She whistled._

_“someone doesn’t want his secrets to be found, that’s for sure.” She then cracked her knuckles with a smug grin. “but its not like that has ever stopped me before.”_

_She then leaned in and put one of her ears near the lock and started twisting. With each click, her grin grew._

_This continued for about three minutes, until the safe gave a satisfying clunk and unlocked._

_“I still got it.” the witch told herself, as she opened it. Inside were multiple files. “ooooh, got some dirty secrets I need to know about Belos?”_

_She grabbed the first one on the stack and read the title. “Experiment: number E9, enhancing potions.” She raised an eyebrow as she looked through it. “Looks like Belos is trying to find a way to make his guards stronger without to much trouble. He has really been looking into it, from physical enhancing, to mental and even magical enhancing.” She frowned. Sadly, it didn’t say exactly how the research was going or where. All it said, was the basics about the project and that the full document could be found at the Emperor’s castle._

_As she went through all of the others, she noticed that there was a certain rhythm to it. all the information that most files gave, was the name, a basic description and that the full report could be found at the Emperor’s castle._

_Overall, it gave her some good information. But not to the degree she had hoped. She then grabbed the files and closed the safe and the secret door. Putting the documents on one of the chairs, she continued her work._

_About fifteen more minutes passed, and she had gone through the entire room and had practically looked everywhere. Every nook and cranny._

_Except for one place. The big table standing in the middle of the room._

_At first sight, it looked like a normal table._

_But Eda knew better._

_Belos was known to hide things in plain sight. And most of the time, he would be able to pull it off. But Eda knew him enough, to know that most things were different than they actually were when it involved him._

_In the beginning, she couldn’t really find anything. Until she noticed a small panel hidden away under the tabletop. When she opened it, she saw a weird symbol engraved into the table._

_‘The heck?’ the rebel thought. ‘what do these guys have with symbols?’ she was about to look for something that corresponded with it, but then looked at the glove that she was still wearing. ‘would it?’ she shook her head. ‘nah, they wouldn’t be so stupid, would they?’_

_But to her surprise, when she put her hand on it, the symbol glowed as well as the one on her glove. As soon as that happened, some sort of magical hum could be heard._

_And a few seconds later, some sort of holographic map of the entire Boiling Isles appeared over the entirety of the table._

_She threw her hands up in frustration. “are you kidding me?! What kind of idiots are they?!” she pinched her nose. “it’s a miracle that Belos even sends these guys out to fight, when they are barely smarter than a bunch of rocks.”_

_She then shrugged. “but hey, makes it easier for me.” The witch then turned her attention towards the hologram. “wow.” She spoke. “you can see the entire Boiling Isles like this. They have definitely been upgrading their stuff.” She could basically feel the magical energy radiate from the damn thing._

_Holograms made from magical energy were only a few months old, but they were very popular. She had been thinking of getting something like this for the meeting room in the Owl House. But sadly, the secrets to make it were heavily secured by the inventors._

_Sure, anyone who could try to make one themselves, but there was a specific procedure you had to go through. Otherwise, it had the potential to blow up your entire house. That’s why, when Gus wanted to make one, she had advised against it._

_Focusing back on what was in front of her, first dispelling the light orb seeing that the hologram lit up the entire room, she unconsciously brushed the hand on the symbol forward. Which resulted in multiple red dots appearing on the map. They were mostly spread all over it, some on the legs, others on the arms. There were also a few on the torso, and a very small amount on the head._

_“what are these?” she asked herself. She reached out towards the one closed to her, to see if she could touch it._

_She recoiled as a small screen seemed to pop up from it the moment she did. Recovering from the shock, she saw that it had text on it._

_Her eyes widened as she read it._

_It said:_

_Place: Marlovia._

_Status: Semi-Lost._

_Rebel Activity: Low._

_Action: Keep an eye out._

_Size: small._

_Extra info: people on town are easy to bribe._

_She gulped. The rebel then looked over the map and tapped on one specific dot. Another screen popped up. It said:_

_Place: Bonesborough._

_Status: Mostly Lost._

_Rebel activity: Extremely high._

_Size: Big._

_Action: take it down, no matter what._

_Extra Info: rebel group run by group called The Guardians. Eliminate at all costs._

_Eda scowled at it. “so, this is how they keep track of us.” She then raised an eyebrow. “and apparently, there are more rebel groups. Why didn’t we know about this?!” she took a closer look at it._

_As far as she could count, there were about fifteen more groups spread around the Isles. It may sound like a low number but seeing what Belos was doing to prevent any form of rebellion, it was kind of better then descend._

_She looked down at the big piece of furniture. “maybe there’s more like this. Keeping track of places with rebel activity can’t be the only thing this is used for.”_

_Seeing no other buttons or levers, she tried putting her hand back on the symbol under the table. “let’s see, I moved my hand forward to make the dots appear. Maybe if I do it in another direction, like this- “_

_She moved her hand to the right, and the red dots disappeared. Instead, there were now a bunch of blue triangles scatter over the hologram. And there were a lot more of those then the dots before._

_she was surprised that it actually worked. Leaning in closer, she asked herself: “now, what in the heck are these?” she toughed the closest to her._

_As expected, a small screen popped up. But the information was way different:_

_Place: Marlovia._

_Type: Medium camp._

_Power: Medium._

_Loyalty: Trustworthy to a certain degree._

_Last moment of contact: Two weeks ago._

_Situation: Relatively calm._

_Prisoners: Twelve._

_The witch smirked, “so this is how they keep track of all of their bases and camps? Interesting.” She snickered. “If I brought this back to camp, Bump would faint instantly. Now who’s the lazy one, huh?!” she then slightly paled, as she saw how many there were. “holly Titan, there’s about thirty on each limb and even more on the torso and head. How has this guy not managed to beat us if he has so many soldiers to his disposal?!” she then smirked and puffed out her chest. “probably because we’re amazing at what we do.”_

_She shook her head, “come on, focus.” Then she put her hand back on the table console. “only two more directions to go.” she then swiped her hand backwards._

_…._

_The table turned off. the room was shrouded in darkness once again._

_“you’ve got to be kidding me.” The old women grumbled. Pulling her hand of the controls and placing it again, resulted in the table coming back to life, the hologram and the triangles reappearing “and we’re back.” She proclaimed like it was some sort of show._

_“let’s see if I can get even more from this.” And she swiped her hand to the left._

_Instantly, the blue shapes were replaced by green squares._

_“they really like their color coordinated shapes, don’t they?” she smirked. “now let’s see what you are. Warehouses? Laboratories? The locations of Belos’s exes?”_

_She tapped one of them._

_Her grin left her face as she paled and read the information that popped up. Her eyes wide as diner plates. She subconsciously raised her hands in front of her mouth in disbelief._

_Place: Casmorlea_

_Status: Freed._

_Ago of event: A few months._

_Rebel Group: Extinguished._

_Former size: Big._

_Method: Full frontal assault._

_Soldier status: No Wounded._

_Summary: Troops lead a full assault on the traitor’s home base, and managed to plow through their defenses. The fight was over in no time. Men, women, and kids were captured. The houses were burned down to the ground._

_And as the women thought it couldn’t get any worse, she read the last line and almost threw up on the spot._

_Prisoners: No prisoners were taken, at the orders of the Emperor. Everyone was publicly executed in town, as an example to the rest. No survivors._

_That last line echoed through her head._

_No survivors. No survivors. NO survivors._

_These weren’t just locations; they were elimination reports._

_It was that point that her disbelief turned to anger._

_“THAT SON OF A FUCKING WHORE!!!” she shouted. “WHO THE HELL DOES HE THINK HE IS?! THE SON OF A GOD?!” she snarled. “HOW CAN HE JUST GET AWAY WITH THIS?! KILLING NOT ONLY ADULTS, BUT ALSO KIDS! KIDS!!”_

_She slammed her fist on the table, creating a big dent. “IF I EVER GET HIM IN MY HANDS, I SWEAR TO THE FRECKING TITAN THAT I’LL MAKE HIM PAY!!”_

_As she went through the other reports, she noticed the same pattern. A location of a former rebellion group utterly destroyed with no survivors. And all of them had happened in the last year or so._

_She could feel hot tears in the corners of her eyes. but they weren’t made form anger. No, they were made from sorrow, pain and guilt. If only they had known about other groups a few months before today, they would have been able to help them. They could have saved them._

_It was at this point, that she knew the next big point on the agenda. They couldn’t let this continue, or many more would die at the Emperor’s hands._

_She looked back towards the table and noticed that while the squares were spread out over the Isles like the rest, the amount of them was way lower. Which on its own was a good sign. But then to think, that this has been going on for practically five years now, and that the tyrant has had enough time to get rid of way more then he actually did._

_Which was weird, seeing what he was doing to get rid of them._

_But before she could put anymore thought into it, the door was thrown wide open. The witch quickly looked behind her, and saw a guard standing in the doorframe, frozen in shock._

_The two stood there for a few awkward seconds, until Eda tried to cast another sleep spell._

_Sadly for her the guard saw it coming, dodged it, and lunched towards a lever. The rebel tried to stop it, but as soon as the lever was pulled, a loud alarm could be heard through the entire base._

_Knocking the guard out, the witch quickly grabbed the documents and started running._

_As she ran through the hallway, she saw guards coming from different rooms. Most of them started chasing her. Others seemed to run of to gather the rest._

_At some points, Eda even saw some of them dive into a room, which she knew was a broom closet, and come out with weapons._

_And then not like brooms, mops or soap or anything like that. No, actual weapons like maces, flails, spears and swords._

_‘YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!’ she screamed in her head, which was followed by a huff. ‘I guess that explains all of the closets.’_

_As she tried to make her way through the hallway, she was often blocked by guards getting in her way. But she didn’t let them stop her, as she either shoved them away, blasted them or ran in another direction. But the longer this continued, the more of them seemed to pop up._

_And right as she thought that it couldn’t get worse, she got to a dead-end._

_The witch looked around, but saw no other way to run, except for the way she came. But that wasn’t an option, seeing that the hall was filled with a few dozen guards. Who were approaching her like she was a trapped animal._

_“you better not come any closer.” Eda exclaimed. “take one more step, and you’ll regret it.”_

_The guard in the front cocked his head. “and why would that be?” he said as he took a step forward, taunting her._

_The rebel smirked. “I told you to so, now suffer the consequences.”_

_Outside the building meanwhile, guards were running around gathering each other and their weapons._

_As soon as the alarms had gone off, every single guard in the premises had been alerted. No one knew who the intruder was. All they knew, was that it was happening in the guard barracks, but one think was sure._

_Whoever they were, they would not get out of this._

_They thought they had it covered as they ran towards the building, when all of a sudden one of the walls exploded, debris flying everywhere. Most managed to dodge it, but others were hit and heavily injured, to not even talk about the guards who were caught in the blast itself._

_As the smoke started clearing, Eda jumped out of the hole she had made, still holding the papers she stole. Leaving the guards behind her in the dust, literally._

_But she knew that she wasn’t free yet, as she saw another batch of guards heading right for her. she sighed. “I really can’t catch a break, can I?”_

_In a surprisingly short amount of time, she was surrounded at all sides._

_The guards held her at spell-point. “surrender now, and the Emperor might go merciful on you.”_

_The elder witch scoffed. Like either was ever going to happen._

_Seeing that she wouldn’t surrender, the guards started firing their charged spells. With multiple bolt of lightning, blasts made of magical energy, globs of slimy goo and fireballs heading her way, any normal witch would have surrendered instantly._

_But they hadn’t met Edalyn Clawthorne yet. Because she ducked and dodged her way through the barrage. And when the guards were readying another storm of spells, she grinned as she cast a spell, sending out a shockwave of energy._

_As the wave hit them, the guards were send flying through the air. All of them screaming in shock and some of them even pain as they hit one of the walls. Some had such bad luck, that they hit the fence, resulting in them getting electrocuted._

_When the witch saw that her plan had worked, she started running for the fence._

_The guards, who thought that she didn’t know the risks of the fencing, followed her._

_As soon as she reached it, she stopped and turned around towards the guards, who came to a stop about thirty feet away from her._

_“yeah, now you’re in trouble, aren’t you?” one of them spoke up. “did you just come to the realization that you can’t touch the fence without suffering for it?”_

_Eda shrugged. “nah, I just wanted to look all of you in the face as I made my escape with your precious documents.” As soon as she said that, she put two fingers in her mouth and whistled loudly._

_At first nothing happened, until the sounds of something flying through the air could be heard. and in no time, Eda’s staff had made its way next to its owner. and just for good measure, she threw in a spell, temporarily dazing her opponents._

_“It’s was fun talking and all, but I really have to go.” the rebel said as she gave a mock salute and took off on Owlbert._

_As she did that, the guards recovered and started shooting spells at her again. Luckily for the flying witch, they didn’t have the best aim, especially after being stunned, and she managed to easily avoid them. Victory and freedom were in her sights._

_But she would lose one of them. Because as she flew away from the base, the documents she had with her, suddenly burst into flames. “what?!” she called out. “No, no, no, no!” but before she could do anything, the papers were completely incinerated._

_When she had recovered from the sudden event, she glared back towards the base in the distance. “they had a back-up plan.” She growled. “they probably knew that I would get far with the documents, that’s why they didn’t follow me in the air.”_

_She sighed in defeat. “luckily I remember most of the things that were in there, otherwise this would have been for nothing.”_

_She shook her head as she continued on her way. “let’s hope that the others have more luck.”_

_End Flashback:_

“and that’s basically how my mission went.” Eda rounded of her report.

The table was silent, no one reacted. No one even moved. Every single one of them had wide eyes and had paled, even Bump. It was obvious that after Eda told them about the ‘victory reports’, everyone practically had stopped listening. And she didn’t blame them in the slightest.

Droplets of water could be heard hitting the table. As they looked towards the sound, they saw that they were tears, which came from the Latina girl of the group.

“why.” She spoke with a broken voice. “why would he do that?! Why would he kill people who probably didn’t even do anything against him?! WHY WOULD HE KILL KIDS!!!?” she cried out, as tears streamed down her face. “THEY DIDN’T HAVE A CHOICE, BUT TO FOLLOW THEIR PARENTS, AND LOOK WHAT HE DID TO THEM!!! COMPLETE INOCENT CHILDREN, WHO HAD THEIR ENTIRE LIVES IN FRONT OF THEM!! WHY!!?”

“we don’t know Luz, but we can’t do anything for them now.” Amity said as she put an arm over the human’s shoulders in comfort. The brunette looked up with teary eyes, and hugged Amity in full force. All Amity could do, was rub her back in comfort and tell her that there was nothing they could have done. But even though she looked sturdy, Eda saw that she had tears in her eyes as well and was ready to burst.

And she wasn’t the only one: Willow also had tears running down her cheeks as Gus tried to comfort her, just as broken. And no smile could be seen on the twins faces, as they hugged each other.

The Emperor had gone far sometimes, but this was a whole new kind of cruel.

And even though Eda has had multiple days to process it, she still felt dark, cold and empty as she thought about it.

Bump was the only one who managed to keep composure. “that, is incredibly tragic to hear.” He sighed. “If only we knew.”

The Owl Lady nodded. “And that’s why I say that we get in contact with all of the other groups.” That got the attention of the rest. “We need to make sure that this doesn’t happen again. We can’t let Belos do this, not without suffering himself.” She growled. “I bet he doesn’t even bat an eyelid at it and sleeps like a rock at night, even though he is responsible for dozens of deaths.”

“Eda’s right.” Everyone turned towards the human. She seemed to have gotten herself back together and had a determined shine in her eyes. “we can’t let others suffer. Not when we started this whole thing.” She then shook her head. “I’m not saying that I regret doing it, its just that we’re going about this all wrong.” She put her hands on the table, stood up and looked around the table.

“our rebellion is about equality and unity. But what does that say, when we don’t even help other groups.” She then slammed her hand on the table. “If we want to defeat that son of a bitch, we need to work together, as one.”

Everyone was silent at that. Luz rarely swore, but when she did, they knew that she meant serious business.

“I’m in.” Luz looked to her side, and saw Amity standing next to her. “she’s right. If we want to do this, we need every bit of help we can get.”

Willow stood up as well. “I’m in too.”

Gus was next. “Count me in.”

The twins looked around the group. “as much as we want to join this idea, how are we even going to do this?” Emira said.

“yeah,” Edric added. “It’s not like we know their locations.”

“we know at least one.” Eda said. “we know that there is one in Marlovia.”

Edric grumbled. “and how much is that going to do? If I recall correctly, you said that it was a relatively small group.” He then threw up his arms. “and that’s only one out of, what? Fifteen?”

The Owl Lady nodded. “It may not be much, but it’s something. And big results can come from small beginnings.”

“oooooh. Going all philosophical on us Eda?” Luz taunted. “I didn’t know about this part of you. where did you get that from, a cereal box?” this made the other young adults chuckle.

Eda scoffed. “oh, shut it will you.” she then smirked. “and just for your information, I got it from a newspaper.” She then turned back towards the twins. “and as I said: it’s not much, but it’s a start. And who knows? Maybe they know the location of another base?”

Emira sighed. “so, you’re telling us, that you want to start an almost impossible mission, with no plan at all and are just going to wildly wing it?” she then smiled. “my kind of plan. Count me in on this.”

“Same here.” Edric said with a grin.

“we are not going anywhere.”

Everyone turned towards Bump with a shocked look. “And why not?” Luz asked.

“because, Miss Noceda, It’s way to dangerous. We are having more and more trouble with our own batch of guards in town and we can’t miss anyone in case they find our location.”

“but you just said that you wished we could have done something.” Amity argued.

The former principal huffed. “don’t twist my words around, Miss Blight. I said that I wished we knew about it, so we could hold a service in their honor, not so we could have prevented it.”

“And why not?” Willow called out. “I don’t know if you know but preventing is normally better than healing.”

“that may be so,” the principal reacted. “but what if we weren’t able to prevent it in the first place. What if the army of guards had been too big for even us to handle? Then we could have lost people, making us weaker in the process.”

“you don’t know that.” Gus replied. “sure, there is a chance that we wouldn’t have been able to save them in the first place, but we could’ve at least helped with evacuating the base, saving multiple of them. We could have made a difference.”

“maybe, but that doesn’t matter anymore, does it?” the old man exclaimed. “and I still don’t agree with the plan to make contact with other groups. Way too many risks.” He then hit the table with his hand. “and as the leader of the Guardians, I make the decisions.” He then muttered. “It was their own fault anyway, for not being prepared.”

Someone then jumped onto the table and grabbed him by his collar, lifting him from his chair.

Bump’s eyes widened slightly as he looked at the person holding him in the air.

“What, did you just say?!” Luz glared at him. “That it was their own fault? You’ve got a lot of guts to say that!”

Bump huffed in annoyance. “If you don’t like the truth Miss Noceda, maybe you shouldn’t be here. this isn’t like one of your go lucky stories. This is war.”

Luz chuckled at that. But it wasn’t her warm, joyful one. It was a dark and cold one, sending shivers up the spines of some people in the room.

They knew that if Luz acted like this, you had screwed up big time.

“oh, I don’t think you get it Bump.” The human spoke. “I think you don’t belong here as of this moment. You see, you’re trying to go against everything we stand for. And we can’t tolerate that behavior now, can we?” she continued. “then you accused a bunch of poor dead people for not being prepared for a complete slaughter fest, like you don’t even care.” She then snarled. “and last but not least, and this is probably the most pathetic of them all: you still think, even after all these years, that you’re the leader of our group. But guess what Bump? You never were, and never will be. You are co-leader at best, but never the leader. That spot has been filled by my mentor since the beginning.”

She pulled him closer to her. “or did you forget who saved your sorry ass from the guards?!!” she then raised her voice subconsciously. “YOU MAY GIVE OUT THE MISSIONS AND ALL, BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN THAT YOU’RE ABOVE US!” she looked the old man in the eyes, fire burning in her own. “SO LISTEN HERE! IF YOU ACT LIKE THIS AGAIN, I SWEAR TO THE TITAN THAT I’LL- “LUZ! CALM DOWN!”

The enraged human turned towards the Owl Lady. “you need to calm down, we’re not getting any further like this.” She then looked around the table and saw that the others were incredibly tense. “I think we all need a little break, fifteen minutes and then all report back here. Okay?”

The others nodded and quickly walked out of the room. But Luz still stood on the table, Bump still held up by her hands.

“Luz,” Eda said with a calm, but warning tone. “put him down.”

The brunette briefly looked towards her teacher, until she huffed and dropped Bump back into his chair. and as the principal fell back in his seat, he let out a small grunt of pain from the landing.

“fine,” Luz spoke. “But if he acts like this again, I’ll skin him alive.” She said as she jumped of the table. and as she hit the ground, she let out a groan of pain and reached for her stomach and ribs, which didn’t go unnoticed by the Owl witch. But before she could as the human, she had already left the room.

When she knew for sure that they were all far away enough, she turned towards the ex-principal with a frown.

“We need to talk.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone.  
> so, sorry if some bits feel a little forced, but I'll try to improve them over time. also, I thin that I'll be abe to get maybe two more chapters out before the end of the year. AND I've looked over my other chapters and saw some major flaws in not only the writing, but also the lore of my story. so I'll be trying to fix that.
> 
> anyway, again, sorry if some bits feel forced. I don't have a beta-reader ( even though I would absolutely love that), and I just couldn't get out of my words.
> 
> criticism, both positive and negative is always welcome.
> 
> hope to see you next time,  
> Gr Elementalwriter.


	9. A Small Intermission

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy :)

Chapter 9:

“What’s wrong with you?!” Eda exclaimed as she threw her arms into the air. “Seriously. Could you have been possibly even worse towards them?”

Bump scoffed. “How I do and act is none of your busines Edalyn.”

“Oh, it’s very much my busines when it affects the team. And as Luz just reminded you, I’m the leader, so I’m supposed to take care of them.” Her frown deepened. “since the beginning of the briefing, you’ve been like this. Heck, even before that.” She then crossed her arms, leaving no room for discussion.

“Now, mind telling me what’s been up with you so far, or do I need to pull it out of you?”

All the man before her did, was sigh as response.

The next few seconds were filled with silence. Neither of them moved.

“I just,” Bump then spoke up. “I’ve just been under a lot of pressure. The way that I acted towards the rest was unjustified.”

“Pressure?” Eda asked as she raised an eyebrow. “What pressure? I thought that it was quite peaceful compared to normal.”

“It may seem like that Eda, but you’re wrong.” Bump took a deep breath and started to explain. “The Emperor is up to something Eda, and I haven’t been able to find a single clue about it. It frustrates me to no end; I’ll tell you that.” He looked up towards her. “the last few weeks, I’ve been busy planning missions which will be taking place all over the Isles. from small groups of spies at the legs, to an entire scout unit at the head.

I was already worried about them when they were on a mission. Then I freaked out even more when I heard that the Twins had blown up the labs and could’ve easily destroyed the papers they came to collect. And then to hear that not only did we have a spy in our ranks, but we also lost possible valuable information and discovered that multiple groups have been killed by Belos’s men.” He sighed again. “It just become too much.”

“Hey,” Eda spoke. “I get it. I worry about them too. I mean, come on. The kids are practically family.” She then put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “but you shouldn’t worry about them this much. We both know that when it comes down to it, they will fight like chimera’s.”

“I know.” He then chuckled “especially your student.”

“Which one?” The women said jokingly.

That gave Bump a small smile. “You know which one I’m talking about.”

Eda nodded. “yeah. And you’re right. She’s definitely not afraid to throw punches, that’s for sure.” She then sighed. “the kid had changed a lot over the years.”

“Agreed.” The man said. “I still remember when she arrived at Hexside for the first time. So eager to learn and a bundle of positive energy. Something which you rarely see here.”

Eda agreed. “and now look at her: A professional witch, one of the strongest I have ever known, even though she doesn’t have a bile sack. She has learned to completely maximize the use of her glyphs and has turned them into powerful weapons.”

She then huffed. “but all of that, came at a price.” She frowned. “sure, she may have learned how to defend herself, but she lost her childhood. Something you can’t get back. She lost contact with her mother, who she hasn’t seen in years now. And she lost her innocence. Sure, she’s still positive and cheerful. But I’ll never forget her face when she,” the Owl Lady gulped. “When she made her first kill.”

The former principal nodded with a solemn expression. “If I remember, it was on accident, wasn’t it?”

The female witch nodded in confirmation. “It was in their first year of training. Luz, Amity, Willow and Gus all wanted to come on a mission with me. I told them that it would be dangerous, but they didn’t mind.

And after some negotiations, I agreed to let them come with me. But as soon as it got too dangerous, they had to flee no matter what.” she shook her head. “But I also agreed because I thought that it would be a relatively easy mission. How wrong I was.

As soon as we got were, we came for, we were swarmed with guards. It was supposed to have not even have half of the amount that we had to face off against. We were overwhelmed pretty fast. I told the kids that I would make an opening so they could flee.

But Luz wouldn’t let that happen. She was determined to stay and fight. To help me. The other three agreed. I, of course, reminded her of the promises that they had made. But she turned it down like it was nothing and said that rules and promises were allowed to be broken if it involved friends. If it involved family.

I was about to argue back, but we were then separated by falling debris. Willow and Gus went with me, while Luz and Amity went another way.” She spoke. “the next time I saw her, was on an open field behind the base. They were taking on a small group of guards each.

I saw that Amity was holding her own fairly well but she could use some help, so I send Gus and Willow towards her. I then turned towards Luz and saw her fighting her group with her glyphs. Some were partly frozen in blocks of ice; others were tangled up in vines. And some of them even lay unconscious on the ground.

But I saw that the girl was starting to struggle. So, I quickly made my way over.” She then got a small smile on her face. “I don’t know if you know the feeling Bump. But fighting alongside your own student, it gave me a feeling I can’t even describe. A sense of pride you can’t find anywhere else. We got slightly separated from each other as we fought our own small group of guards.”

Then her gaze darkened, and a shiver went down her spine, as she remembered what happened next. “It didn’t take long, until I was finished with my batch. As I looked around the clearing, I saw that Amity, Willow and Gus had just finished up as well.

But when I looked towards Luz, my heart stopped and froze.

She was sitting on the ground with her back against a tree, and a guard was standing over her, dagger in hand. Her eyes full of fear for her life. I screamed her name in desperation and ran towards her. The others heard me and turned to look in the same direction.

But before I could reach her, the guard brought down his weapon and Luz screamed and raised her arm in an attempt to stop it.

The next thing I know, a giant icicle is protruding from the guards back. Blood was gushing out of the wound like a river. I made my way towards her and saw her stare at the corpse in front of her. The poor girl had completely paled, and she was frozen in horror as she looked at the chest wound, while blood pooled around her shoes.

As soon as I reached her, I threw the body away from her and got a full view of what had happened. When Luz had raised her arm to guard herself, she had activated the ice glyph that she had in her hand at the moment. Causing a big ice spike to erupt from it, killing the guard in the process.

She only then seemed to notice me. Luz was shaking all over, Fear and horror evident in her eyes. And as if by instinct, I hugged her. I held her close to me as she started crying.”

Eda let out a sigh as she finished retelling the dreadful day. “It may have been an enemy, but it was still a living being.” She then frowned. “for the next weeks, she wasn’t herself. She isolated herself from the rest. And when she was around, she would be silent. Not saying a single thing. She blamed herself for the guard’s death, even if we kept telling her that what she did was in pure self-defense.”

She let out another sigh. “It took her a few months to recover. And even then, she never really returned to her normal self. Even though she still acted so happy and cheerful, like the big ball of positive energy that she was, something felt different. Something had changed inside of her. I could see it in her eyes. under all of that happiness was a darker layer.”

Bump agreed. “indeed. Since then the human has not been the same, even I noticed.” He then frowned. “And now that were talking about your student acting off, her reaction was abnormal for her.”

“I noticed that as well.” The Owl Lady said. “Normally she doesn’t explode like that.”

The former principal nodded. “And I think I know why.” The other witch looked at him in confusion. “When she held me in the air, I saw a slight glow in her eyes. one which we have seen before.”

It took Eda a moment to come to a conclusion. “You mean to tell me she used ‘it’ again? Even when we told her not to?!”

Bump shrugged. “I can’t say for sure, but that seems like the most logical thing in this situation.”

The women huffed in response. “she and I are going to have a talk after this.” She then shook her head. “but we’re getting of track here.”

“Listen, I understand that you’re under a lot of pressure right now. I get it.” Eda explained. “But that doesn’t mean you need to react it of towards the others. They don’t deserve it.

And then I want to point out your reactions towards Edric and Emira. I know that you don’t really like the twins because of the stuff they did while still on Hexside. But that’s all in the past. It has been literal years. And yes, I know they can still be a pain in the ass, but that’s just who they are.” She then put her hands on her hips. “heck, you’ve had to deal with students worse then them, and you survived.”

“you, for example.”

“Exactly. This whole battle between you three needs to finally stop.” She then hardened her gaze. “I want you to calmly talk with the Twins, and that you three bury the battle axe. Got it?”

Even though he didn’t really like the plan, Bump agreed. “Fine. But how will I know that those two will take this seriously?”

“I’ll make sure of that.” Eda spoke. “You know that I’m one of the few people they actually listen to.”

“Which is a miracle on its own.” Eda laughed at that.

“I can’t really deny that.” She then turned towards the clock on the wall. “Break is almost over. The others will probably return any second now.”

When Luz exited the room, she was still incredibly pissed. ‘ _Who the hell does he think he is?’_ She then looked out the window towards the front of the house and saw that the rest were all standing outside, wearing their jackets against the cold air. She quickly grabbed her own, and as she opened the front door to join them, everyone turned towards her.

“What?” she asked.

Willow was the one who answered. “Luz, are you feeling okay?”

Luz raised an eyebrow. “I feel fine. Why are you asking?”

Gus spoke up next. “well, we’re kind of worried since you… you know….” He fiddled with a part if his sleeve.

“Went completely bonkers and practically attacked the old man.” Edric finished.

“hey!” Luz retorted. “He had it coming for him!”

Willow raised her arms in defense. “We’re not saying that he didn’t. It’s just that you may have gone a little overboard.”

“Overboard? How was that overboard?! I told him exactly what he could expect!”

Emira stepped in this time, noticing the aggressive response. “We get that. But still-“

“No, I don’t think you get it at all!” Luz snarled. “He wants other people to suffer, just so we’re safe. Well, I rather die in battle and save a multitude of people, then let people die while I just sit here doing nothing!”

“yeah, we understand Luz, but-“ noticing that they weren’t getting through to her, he turned to the only person who had not spoken yet. “Amity, a little help here.”

The powerful witch in question hadn’t said anything since they left the briefing room. But now she stepped forward and calmly put her hand on the human’s shoulder. “Luz.” She spoke calmly.

“What?!”

The glare that she got in return, combined with the slight snarl, hurt her on the inside. She hated seeing her like this.

But even through the harsh response, she stayed calm and composed. “You need to calm down. You’re losing control.” She said.

The human huffed. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“you know exactly what I mean.” The green haired witch responded. “You’re losing yourself. If you continue like this, I don’t know if we’ll be able to get you back this time.” She then looked Luz dead straight in the eyes. The once sparkling brown eyes seemed to have lost their joy and instead had an unnatural glow to them. “What’s important right now, is that you calm down until the effects wear off. Do it for us, please.” She said calmly. ‘ _do it for me.’_

The human huffed in response at first. But then her eyes widened slightly in realization, and she looked around her, seeing the worried faces of all of her friends. “You’re right.” She then straightened her back and took a deep breath. After a few seconds, she let it out. this process repeated itself a few times. And at the end of it, she instantly felt better.

The girl smiled at the witch with gratitude. “Thanks Ams. What would I do without you?”

The Blight shrugged. “hey, someone has to keep you grounded.” The two snickered at that.

“uhm, care to bring us up to speed?!”

The two laughing witches turned towards the rest of the group, all of them wearing faces of confusion. The human rubbed the back of her neck in response. “Yeeeaah. We have some explaining to do, don’t we?”

“pretty much.” Willow said. “care to explain what’s going on?”

“We would like to,” Amity started. “But we can’t.”

“why not?” Edric asked. “I thought that we wouldn’t keep secrets from each other?”

“says the one with a secret plushy collection.” Luz said with a smug grin.

Edric’s face immediately turned red, putting tomatoes to shame. Willow tried to suppress her giggles but was failing, while Gus was not even trying to hide it. but that was nothing compared to Emira, who was rolling on the ground of laughter while holding her stomach.

The male twin threw a slight glare towards Luz. “How did you-?”

“I was looking for some of my books, which had ‘mysteriously’ disappeared again.” She spoke with a frown. “and while I was looking through your stuff, I found the box with your stuffed friends.” She finished with a shrug.

“what even gives you the right to go through my stuff?!” Edric called out.

The human crossed her arms. “If you and Emira would just stay out my stuff, this wouldn’t have happened.” The twin had no response for that.

“You still got those things, even after all this time?!” Emira managed to say through her laughter.

Amity smirked. “oh don’t sell yourself as any better, Miss Emira, I-pretend-to-hate-dresses-but-secretly-dance-around-in-them-when-no-one-is-watching, Blight.”

Emira’s laughter immediately come to a grinding halt, and she quickly got off the ground and dusted of her jacket. Her face matching that of her brother. “I-I-I don’t know w-what you talking about!” she stuttered in a slight panic.

“Oh, come on. I’ve seen you dance around your room, wearing a dress of which you had always said looked ‘disquietingly prissy’ and ‘way too girly’.” Her grin grew. “to not even mention that you were pretending to be dancing with a certain ‘someone’.” She said with innocence. “I don’t know who, but it seemed very important to you.”

Then Emira’s face did the impossible, and somehow managed to turn even redder.

At this point, Gus was clutching his stomach, tears of laughter in his eyes and Willow had completely given up on holding back her giggles and was laughing with her friend.

Emira threw a glare at her sister and the human. “you two are evil, you know that?”

Luz shrugged. “Eh, we try.” She said as she and Amity fist bumped.

The laughter and the blushing continued for a little bit. The twins threw some of hand comments at their tormentors, but they took it in pride. When the two laughing witches had calmed down their giggle-fest and the blush had mostly receded from the twins’ faces, Edric spoke up.

“we’ll get you back for this, both of you.” he grumbled.

“sure you will.” Amity said with a mocking grin. “But remember, you’re only asking for more payback.”

“Oh, we’ll see about that.” Emira muttered. “we’ll see.”

“how could you possibly do that, while your out of material to use?” Edric said with a confident smile.

“Oh, you two think that was all we had?” Amity asked incredulously.

“We have way more were that came from.” Luz added. “let’s just say that we’ve been busy for a little while now, and found some very ‘interesting’ things.”

The Blight twins visibly paled.

“okay guys, enough tormenting the twins.” Willow stepped in. she then turned towards Luz and Amity. “You two still have some explaining to do after all.”

“yeah, that’s right!” Edric said as he regained some of his confidence. “you still have to explain what happened earlier.” Emira and Gus nodded in agreement.

Luz sighed. “Look guys, it’s not like we don’t WANT to tell you, it’s that we CAN’T tell you.”

“We made an oath with Eda to keep it a secret.” Amity continued for her. “an everlasting oath to be exact.”

“unless its with her permission, we aren’t able to tell you guys anything.” The human concluded. “I’m sorry.” she shrugged. “But don’t worry. I’m sure that with time, Eda will come to realize that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to tell you guys, I promise. I mean, she also eventually told Bump, sooooo.”

The four witches raised an eyebrow. What was so secret that Eda was hiding it from them, and that only Luz, Amity, Eda herself and apparently Bump were allowed to know about it?

Their thought process got interrupted by the youngest Blight. “and talking about time, the break is over. We need to return to the briefing.”

The others nodded and they started walking towards the front door. But as Luz started walking, she groaned in pain. Luckily for her, no one had noticed.

well, except for one.

“It’s acting up, isn’t it?” Amity asked worried. Luz waved it off.

“Nothing I can’t handle Ams. No need to worry.” The Blight didn’t seem convinced at all.

She was about to argue back, but was interrupted by her brother who was standing in the door opening. “Hey slowpokes! You two coming or what?”

“we’ll be right there.” Amity spoke. Her brother just shrugged and walked inside. The green haired witch turned back towards Luz. “Luz, you need to get it checked out by the healers. As in, right now.” The witch argued. “I’ll just tell Eda why you’re not coming back right now. She’ll understand.”

But the human shook her head. “Amity, there is no need for that. Believe me, I’m fine.” She then shrugged. “or at least, as fine as I can be.”

Amity frowned. “Still, you should get it checked out before it gets infected.” Luz was about to argue back, but the witch interrupted her. “and no, me checking it doesn’t count, seeing that I’m not a medical expert.”

After a bit of silence, Luz let out a sigh. “fine. If it puts you at ease, I’ll go to the healers. But only AFTER the meeting.” She then walked towards the house, leaving no room for any further discussion.

Amity let out a sigh of her own. ‘ _I’ll take what I can get, I guess.’_ and quickly followed the human inside. As she walked through the door, she saw the others were waiting for her.

“took your time out there.” Emira commented. “what were you doing out there?”

“I can take a guess at what they were doing.” Edric said with a sly grin on his face. Catching on, Amity immediately blushed bright red.

“shut up!” she responded.

The twins walked away, laughing as they sang: “Amity and Luz sitting in a tree, KI-“

“I’LL MURDER BOTH OF YOU!!” Amity called out, as she chased down her siblings.

Willow shook her head. “Unbelievable, those two.” She then turned towards Luz. “We should probably follow them, before Amity rips their heads off.” she then smirked as she saw the blush on the humans face. “Luz?” she called out.

That made the human snap out of her trance. “huh? What?”

That made the witch snicker. “I said that we should prevent Amity from murdering her family.”

“oh. Yeah.” Luz said absentmindedly. “we probably should.” She then walked the opposite way.

“other way Luz.”

The human immediately turned around, rubbing the back of her neck.

As the human walked out of sight, Willow silently laughed. _‘oh Luz. Poor little Luz. You still have it bad, don’t you?’_ she then followed the human into the room. _‘probably the only reason why these two aren’t together yet, is because they are both hopeless.’_

Gus just stood of the side.

“What just happened?”

Loud noises could be heard from the room, mainly shouting. And the cause showed itself as Willow walked in. the youngest Blight was chasing her siblings with what looked like a metal pipe. _‘where the heck did she get that from?’_

As she entered, the Owl Lady turned towards her and spoke up. “hey, mind telling me why Amity is trying to bash in the skulls of her own siblings?!”

“Let’s just say that they said something and she wasn’t all too happy about it.” Eda still looked kind of confused. That wasn’t uncommon, so why the reaction? “It involved Luz.”

The older witch shrugged. “I guess that explains it.”

“oh, come on Mittens. It’s just payback!” Emira called out.

“exactly! And let me repay the favor!” the angry witch shouted.

“Now its my turn.” The plant witch said. “How did she get her hands on a pipe of all things?” she said as Amity let out another shout as she brought down the pipe, nearly hitting Edric in the process.

“You remember when we had a bunch of building materials laying around a few weeks ago? ” Willow nodded. “Well, that one was left, and I just had it standing against the wall. ” She then snickered. “the moment Blight entered the room she saw it, grabbed it, and started swinging.”

“Why do you have that just laying around? You could have brought it to the storage for building materials. Or literally anywhere else!”

The twins then seemed to realize that there wasn’t enough room for them to keep avoiding their angry sister, and ran back towards the main part of the house. Sadly for them, Amity stayed hot on their heels, almost pushing over Gus in the process who just walked in.

Eda just shrugged. “I don’t know.” She then turned towards the human in the room, who still seemed to be lost in her thoughts. “Hey Luz? You still with us?” she called out as Emira lets out a scream from somewhere in the house. which was quickly followed by the sound of people running up the stairs.

Getting no reaction from her, the women walked towards the brunette and grabbed onto her shoulders and started shaking her.

Which had the desired effect.

“Eda stoooop!” Luz called out at the witch.

Hearing her respond, Eda did what the human said. “good to know that you’re still with us kid.” Then the sound of a door slamming shut and muttered shouting could be heard from upstairs.

“What is going on up there?” Luz asked.

The Owl Lady shrugged. “Amity is trying to kill her siblings. What else is new?”

Everyone then almost jumped when the sound of something getting smashed to bits came from the second floor.

“Are we not supposed to do something about that?”

The older witch just waved it off. “they’re all adults. They can figure it out on their own.”

The twins had quickly run upstairs to avoid their sister. Luckily they had been able to put some more distance between them. As they arrived at the top of the stairs, Em looked around for a hiding spot.

“Quick!” she called out. “To your room!”

“why mine?!”

“That doesn’t matter!”

“It kind of does actually.” Edric argued. “I mean, I rather not have my stuff destro-“ he then got interrupted by Amity’s metal pipe flying past his face, missing him by a hair. “My room it is!”

The two quickly booked it as they heard their sibling run up the stairs. “Come back here you two!”

The moment Ed grabbed the doorknob, he flung the door open and they dove into the room as he closed the door behind them and locked it. And as quickly as they could, they started barricading the door with the furniture.

But just at the moment that they thought they were safe, Amity started hitting the door with her fists. “Open the door! Now!”

“No!” Emira called out. “Not until you calm down!”

The other side of the door stayed silent.

Then with a loud crack, a big purple fist, slammed through the door. Creating a big hole. The twins quickly dove behind the small sofa which Edric had in his room. Then an enraged shout was heard as another purple fist blasted through the door, which was then completely ribbed from its hinges. Not that there was much left of it.

In the doorframe stood Amity, still incredibly pissed off. The only difference now, was that her arms were seemingly covered in what looked like abomination goop.

The young adult had learned a lot over the years, and one of those things was that she could use her abominations to enhance her physical abilities, like in this case her strength.

the youngest Blight then gave a small grunt as she moved all of the furniture aside, giving her free way to her siblings. The only thing in between them was the sofa.

The twins started sweating as their little sister approached them. Even though she was younger than them, they knew what she was capable of. If she wanted to, she would be able to kill them on the spot, and they would barely stand a chance.

“It was just payback for earlier!” Ed cried out in desperation.

“Yeah Mittens. No need for murder!” Em added.

“I don’t care if its payback or not!” Amity exclaimed. “You two both know that if you go there, you cross the line! You’ve known that for years now!”

“That’s kind of an issue when you think about it.” the male sibling pointed out, but he immediately coward back behind the couch as his sister shot him a glare. “I’m just saying. It’s been years and you still haven’t done anything about it.”

“don’t you think I want to change that?!” Amity fumed. “Do you think its easy to live in the same house as the girl you adore?! No!” small tears started forming in her eyes. “and each time that you two joke about it like that, it stings. It reminds me of what I’m not able to do.” She sniffled. “what kind of a failure I am.”

“Mittens.” Em spoke as she peeked over the back of the sofa, surprised by her sister’s reaction. “We didn’t think that it would hurt you this way.”

“Exactly!!! You don’t think!! That’s the problem with you two, you don’t think about how it could affect others, you just do it and don’t care about the consequences! Sure, in the beginning it was just annoying. But now it practically feels like straight up bullying.”

“If you had told us about this, we would have stopped.” Edric replied. All he got was a scoff.

“suuuuure. When has that ever happened?! Or do I need to remind you that as a kid, and even as a teenager, I asked you two to stop calling me Mittens!? Multiple times?!”

Emira cocked her head in confusion. “But now you don’t mind.”

“Yeah, now! That’s because it has become part of who I am! But back then, it felt like a jab at me. A pity name.” Amity argued. “I asked, almost begged you two to stop doing it. but you just kept going and going! Like my opinion didn’t even matter to you!

But this is so much worse, because instead of making me feel uncomfortable and embarrassing me, you’re making me feel powerless and are reminding me of how I’m failing in my goals.

It had been, what? Five years? And I’m still no closer to confessing to her then when I began.” The sad witch got more and more tears in her eyes as she dropped the spell holding together her abomination arms, which made the sludge disappear.

“But why haven’t you?” Ed asked as he slowly rose from his hiding spot together with his twin.

Amity sighed. “I just don’t think that it’s the right moment. It never really was. When I was living with Luz, Eda, King and Hooty in the beginning, I just felt insecure, not ready.” she then hugged herself for comfort. “that was probably the only chance I really had.

In our first year, we were so busy with building the town, training, and getting everything to work that there was barely any time left to be thinking about feelings. We were way to busy.

The second year wasn’t much better. A lot of people wanted to join that year and we had to expand the town a lot. That was also the year that Belos started taking notice of us, so we were under more stress. Again not a good time.

And third and last year weren’t good either. There were a lot of missions. I was even gone for a few months. And then Luz was gone for some months as well. More and more pressure was put on us. To not even mention some of the problems we encountered. A confession would have only made it harder.” Amity spoke as her voice started cracking.

She sniffled. “And this year is much either so far. Especially with the information that tons of people have died without us knowing.”

The twins looked at each other. “but that’s not all, is it?” Emira asked. Amity stayed silent at that, but her body language said enough. “Oh, Mittens.” The older sister asked as she walked towards her. “If you need help, just ask.”

The youngest sibling huffed. “yeah, like you two have a good track record with relationships.” She said as she brushed the small tears away.

“That’s not totally true.” Em said. “I’ll let you know, that I personally have actually asked out multiple people so far in my life. And I have been on multiple dates.” She then shrugged. “But you were right about Ed. His record is still probably two, maybe three.”

“wow.” The sibling in question spoke. “just call me out like that.”

“point is, we, or at least I, have experience in the field and we can help you.”

Amity raised an eyebrow. “and allow me to ask: how many of the ones you asked actually went out with you? and how many of those dates were actually you’re idea, and not mom or dad’s?”

“Uhm.” The older sister rubbed her neck. “Zero. On both questions.” She admitted with a sigh. “but I still did it none the less.”

Amity shrugged. “Can’t really argue with that.”

“Mittens, come here.” Edric said as he signed for her to sit next to him on the sofa. As soon as she sat down, Emira sat down on her other side. “now tell us what’s keeping you from confessing to her.”

“Ed!” Em called out as she punched his shoulder. “a little more subtility would be nice.” She then turned towards her younger sister. “let’s start of simple. Mind telling me what made it happen in the first place?” Amity raised an eyebrow at that. “I mean, what exactly made you fall for Luz? And yes, I know that you already told us years ago. But it’ll help. Believe me.” The lovestruck Blight huffed.

“well,” the witch started. “first of all, there is her character: she’s just so overly positive about almost everything. She’s willing to see the good in almost everyone.” She frowned. “someone like me. She saved me from becoming just like ‘them’. She saved me, and I’ll be forever grateful for that.”

The siblings didn’t really talk about their parents. But when they did, they revered to their mom and dad as either ‘her’, ‘he’, or ‘them’. It was a part of their lives they would rather forget.

Amity continued. “But even though she is normally very friendly, when someone is in danger she’s not afraid to just jump in and brawl it out. with her, family comes always first.” she then started blushing. “then there is her smile, which can brighten up any dark rainy day. Her beautiful eyes, so full of life and kind, shining bright like the sun. Her body, warm and welcoming like a fireplace. She’s always there for me when I need her, even if I don’t notice it myself.” She had a dopey smile on her face. “sure she has her bad moments, but she always manages to get back up. I-I just…. I just can’t help but love her.” she then saw the grins on the twins’ faces. “I was rambling, wasn’t I.”

“Yep.” “Pretty much.” The lovestruck witch groaned.

Emira smiled as she saw her sister’s reaction. “seeing that you can explain your affection like that, what is holding you back from fulfilling your dreams?”

Amity didn’t say anything, but her grip tightened as she crossed her arms in front of her chest and her expression turned sad as she looked at her legs. It only took a few seconds for the older sister to put it together. She had seen this behavior before.

Heck, she had experienced it multiple times herself.

“It’s rejection, isn’t it?” the young witch looked up at her. “You’re afraid you’ll be rejected by Luz, aren’t you?”

All she got as a response, was a small nod.

“oooh, Amity.” Em spoke with sympathy. “I know how it feels, baby sis.” She give her sister a small side hug.

Amity knew that if the twins actually used her name, they weren’t joking around. “What do you mean?”

“I have had enough times were I had the feeling that I was going to be rejected, basically keeping me up at night even. Sadly, that feeling was right every time.” She then winced as she saw Mittens her reaction. “and that’s not helping you at all.”

She sighed and tried again. “But all of those rejections made me realize something. They weren’t as bad as they seemed. Sure it hurt, but it’s not like you entire world comes to a grinding halt and you feel like your dying on the inside. That’s just your fear speaking.

As I said: it hurts, but only for a certain amount of time. While when you keep it cropped up inside your body, it’ll slowly destroy you the longer it goes on. And even then, in most cases its so that the person you confessed to is flattered, but would just like to stay friends. And sure, its awkward in the beginning but you grow over it.

Of course there are also the cases from your nightmares, where they laugh at you, or sneer at you in disgust because they hate ‘your time of people’. But those aren’t worth your time. If they react that way, you drop every single bit of contact you had with them and avoid them like they are a deadly disease!” She finished the last part with a heated voice, remembering the times that it had happened to her.

When she had calmed down enough, she continued. “But even then, your friends and family will support you al the way. Heck, one time that Ed discovered that this had happened to me, he had almost beaten the girl to pulp if I hadn’t stopped him.”

“and I highly doubt that Luz is the kind of person to laugh at you. its more likely that Belos plays with baby dolls, then that Luz will act like that.”

Amity laughed slightly at that. The thought of Belos playing with baby toys was very entertaining. Then a question popped into her head.

“what is the worst the two of you have had?” the twins turned to her, not understanding the question. “what is the worst rejection you have ever had?”

The twins looked at each other.

“shall we say it at the same time?” “sure.”

They then took a deep breath and called out at the same time:

“this year’s Grom”

The youngest Blight looked at them, shocked. “What?! But I thought that the two of you had an amazing night. Or at least, that’s what you told me when you came home.”

Edric shook his head. “Your not the only one who is trying to keep certain things secret.”

Emira nodded in agreement. “yes, that night was definitely the worst rejection both of us had ever had.”

She started explaining. “just so you know, we _did_ have dates for the night. We were all dressed up, waiting at the drinks table. ready for our night to be amazing.” Small tears started gathering in her eyes.

“they never even showed up.” Edric continued. “they straight up abandon us. Didn’t even give us a chance.”

“That sounds awful, I’m so sorry you guys.” The youngest admitted. “I wise I had known, then-“

“Oh, hold up.” Edric interrupted. “it gets worse.”

Amity cocked her head in confusion. “how is that even possible?”

“well, you see,” Em explained. “As you maybe remember, we came home extremely late that night. That wasn’t because we had so much fun with our ‘dates’, as you now know. Instead we took a stroll through the forest to calm our minds.” She started turning frustrated at the memory. “we were just walking, taking about how much our night sucked major ass, when we see two people in the distance. And you’ll never guess who!”

“Who?”

“our dates!” Ed fumed. “our dates were standing hand in hand, making out all the while. They literally ditched us, for each other!”

Amity let out a hiss. “Oh my god! That is possibly the most jerkish move ever!” she growled. “I’ve heard some things, but this is just…. Wow.”

Em nodded. “yeah. And it didn’t get much better, because our shouts of surprise were loud enough to be heard all over the place and they spotted us just standing there. They said that they had changed their minds and then chose to just look for a spot in the forest. And stay there, together.” The girl almost gagged.

“that was the last time we spoke to them.” The male twin finished.

“That is some heavy stuff right there.”

“We know. But that won’t happen to you, especially with Luz. And even if it would, we would have your back all the way.” The older sister spoke. “that’s what siblings are for.”

Mittens smiled. “Thanks guys. It must have been hard to talk about it for you two.”

They shrugged. “It was actually good to talk to someone about this.” ”Yeah. It’s actually relieving to, you know, talking about it.”

Amity then frowned. “but I’m still no step closer to confessing to Luz. I don’t even know how to.”

“yes, it may seem hard. But once you get started, everything else just follows.” Emira shrugged. “It just takes bravery to actually do it.”

The young Blight huffed. “That explains why I can’t do it. I apparently don’t got the guts to do it.”

“Now that’s a lie if I ever heard one.” Amity turned towards her brother. “Mittens, you are one of the bravest and most determined people I know. So don’t you dare say that.”

“But what if I’m not good enough?” the lovestruck sibling continued.

Emira scoffed “I don’t think you realize it, but any person would be lucky to have you. So don’t go selling yourself short.” she pointed out. “It doesn’t fit you.”

“But…but w-what if… what if she-“

“Hey! No more, Amity.” Her sister interrupted her. “Stop thinking about what can go wrong, and start thinking about what can go right. With this kind of an attitude you’re not getting anywhere.”

“Em’s right. Maybe you shouldn’t think about Luz rejecting you, but about her accepting you.” Ed added.

“But what if she doesn’t feel the same though?”

The twins each put a hand on her shoulders. “that is for you to find out, Mittens. We can’t help you with that.”

Amity frowned and let out a sigh. “I…I know.” she then smiled. “you know, even though you two can be absolute pains in my ass, you two are always ready to help me. Thank you for that.”

“Again, what are siblings for other then to hep you and to make your life a living nightmare.” Edric said with a grin as he nudged Amity lightly. Amity giggled slightly as she shoved him away. “But seriously though, if you need help with anything, anything at all. Know that you can come to us at any time.” She nodded.

“I will.” She then stood up and walked towards the door. She looked at the damage and hissed. “sorry about you door by the way.”

Ed shrugged. “don’t worry about it. nothing a little bit of magic won’t fix.”

Amity rolled her eyes. “of course.” She was about to walk of but stopped herself. “Oh, and another thing.” The twins looked at her, curious. “You two may have helped me, but I won’t forget what started this situation in the first place.” Her tone darkened. “and if you two do anything like that again, I’ll personally make sure that you’ll pay for it.” she then smiled again. “now come on you two. We’ve got a meeting to finish.”

As she disappeared out of sight, the twins looked at each other.

“How in the hell can she get this scary?”

“I have no idea.”

As Amity walked back into the briefing room, she saw Willow talking with Eda and Bump. Gus and Luz were meanwhile having a little conversation of their own at the table. The moment she walked in, Luz noticed her. “Amity, you’re back!” she then ran over to the witch. “What happened?”

The green haired witch blushed slightly as she looked in Luz’s brown eyes and got reminded of the conversation she just finished with the twins. “N-nothing. Nothing important.” she stuttered. ‘ _yeah, that didn’t sound suspicious at all. Great job Blight.’_

The brunette raised an eyebrow. “are you sure? It definitely didn’t sound like that.”

Amity waved it off. “just something between me and the twins. Nothing to worry about.” She then saw the plant witch approach them.

“I take it that you taught them a lesson?” Willow said with a small knowing grin.

“hey, they had it coming sooner or later.” the Blight argued. Her friend threw up her hands in defense.

“I’m not judging you, believe me. I wouldn’t dare to get in between you and your siblings in a scuffle. But don’t you think that you went a little harsh on them?” she pointed out.

Amity let out a slight huff. “maybe a little.” She then argued back. “But they know where the line is. They also know that they shouldn’t cross it, otherwise I’ll come after them.”

“True.”

“uhm.” Luz interrupted. “may I finally know what this is about? because I don’t know what’s going on right now.”

“It, uhm.” Willow took a quick glance at Amity, and saw her shake her head faintly. “It’s something between the two of us. As long as I understand it, everything is fine.” She finished quickly.

It took a moment, but Luz then shrugged. “Okay. I understand. Keep you secrets.” She said as she walk away, but then turned around. “But I will find out what this is about, or my name isn’t Luz Noceda.” She then walked back towards the table.

The plant witch laughed as they watched the human walk off. “Seems like she’s back to normal.” She then turned towards the abomination witch. “But seriously, what happened up there? It sounded like you were breaking down the entire top floor.”

Amity rubbed the back of her neck. “I may or may not have destroyed Ed’s door while chasing them.”

Willow facepalmed. “of course you did. Why wouldn’t you?”

“what else was I supposed to do? They had barricaded it from the inside and I needed to get in somehow. “

“you could have just, oh I don’t know, removed the door from its hinges and set it to the side.” The Blight wanted to argue back, but she had nothing.

“Uhm, well. Despite that, there isn’t much of a problem, seeing that we can just repair the door with a simple spell.”

The other witch gave her a deadpanned look. “That would have been possible, if we hadn’t made the doors magic proof, on _your_ recommendation.” She exclaimed. “you know, to prevent people from listening in on private conversations.”

Amity let out a sigh. “this really isn’t my day, is it?”

“not really no.” the plant witch spoke. “But that’s not all that happened, right? I mean, there was this big moment of silence after a bunch of shouting.”

“we may or may not have had a… talk.” She admitted.

“A talk?” Willow cocked her head. “a talk about what?” she then noticed that Amity was looking at something and followed her gaze. Her eyes widened slightly as she saw that the object, or person, was Luz. “wait.” She turned back towards her friend and looked at her like she had grown a second head. “you talked with them about ‘that’?”

“hey, I’m just as surprised as you are when they came up with actual advice.” She then lowered her eyes. “I told them what kind of effect their jokes had on me, and they were surprisingly understanding. They even told me some secret which they hadn’t shared with anyone else.”

“and did it help?” Willow asked curiously.

The Blights expression brightened. “weirdly enough, it did. They shared their experiences and I told them about my problems. They actually managed to give me some advice. They made me see, that even the worst case scenario is not as bad as I originally thought.” She smiled. “I might still not be ready for the real deal, but now I know that I will be supported through and through.”

Willow then crossed her arms and scoffed in fake annoyance. “you take advice from your siblings who have embarrassed you your entire life, but not from one of your best friends?”

Amity smirked. “jealousy much?” she then put a hand on Willow’s shoulder. “by the way, its not because I think you don’t know anything about it. it’s just that the twins know me the best out of all of us. And even though they don’t always show it, they care about me deeply.” She then shrugged. “And they probably have a slightly more experience with confessing then you to be honest. Then there is also the point that me and Luz helped you confess to _her_ ,” she said with a snarl. “in the first place.”

The blue haired witch shrugged. “Can’t really go against that, I guess.”

“Hey Blight!” both witches turned towards Eda. “when are those siblings of yours going to come back? They still have to give their report. And I’d rather just get this over with.”

“I think they’ll return soon enough.” Amity called out. “they’re probably trying to repair the door.”

Eda frowned. “Door? what door?” her eyes then widened. “that was what that crashing noise was?!”

“maaaaaybe?” the green haired witch said. the Owl Lady groaned.

“that’s just great. Absolutely amazing.” She then heading towards the table and sat down in her chair. “just get those two down here so we can continue. We’ll talk about this later.”

Amity nodded. But just as she was about to was about to leave, the witches in question walked into the room. “No need to worry, we’re here.” Edric called out.

“good.” Eda commented. “now can everybody sit down? We still have a report to go through.”

When everybody had taken their respective places, she turned towards the twins. “by the way, Bump wants to talk to you two after this.”

“why?” Emira asked, skeptical.

“He’ll explain that himself, but not right now.” She then looked at remaining Blight. “And I want to have a word with you personally Amity. And with you as well Luz.” She finished while looking at the human.

“uuuh, sure.” Luz said. Amity just nodded in confirmation. “good.”

“Now- Edric, Emira- I think it’s finally your turn.”

The twins grinned at each other. “prepare yourselves, because this story will be different from anything you’ve heard so far.” Edric said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey Guys.  
> so, somehting different from those meeting chapter huh.  
> sorry about those chapters by the way. I know their not as exciting, but their background of the story. (Originally the meeting was supposed to be ONE chapter, maybe two. but NOT three!)  
> I swear that the next one wil be the last. then we'll started moving on with the story. I swear to the Titan.  
> I'm also getting annoyed by these chapters, seeing what I have planned for the story.  
> and if everything goes to plan, chapter 10 wil come out on December the 30th.
> 
> I'm also going to work on a new project, which I need to get going before season 2 comes out. let's just say that it involves Agony Of A Witch.
> 
> Again, sorry for the boring chapters.  
> Any advice or opinions you may have, please use the comments down below.
> 
> see you all next time.  
> Gr Elementalwriter.


	10. A Briefings End.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy.
> 
> BTW: watch out, 12K words. read at own risk.

Chapter 10:

“As some of you may know,” Edric began. “We were send out to break into a research facility, which had connections to the Emperor.”

“Our mission was to retrieve files from their safe and we had to stay unnoticed if possible.” Emira continued. “Everybody here knows that my brother and I are some of the best thieves and spies that the rebellion has,” she bragged. “so this mission didn’t seem like a problem to us.”

Amity silently huffed, as Luz rolled her eyes. The bragging of the twins was really annoying sometimes. But what made it worse, was that they were not lying.

They, indeed, were some of the best at what they did, able to rival Eda in most ways. They even managed to outclass the women in certain situations.

Each of them had a certain skill, which has managed to get them out of sticky situations before.

Emira was really good at sneaking around. When she would either be walking around, or climbing through the vents, you wouldn’t hear a single sound. The years of sneaking out of the house had taught her how to be as silent as a mouse. She was able to hide in the shadows like no other. If she didn’t want to be seen, she wouldn’t be seen. “It’s all about patterns and being able to use your surroundings to the fullest.” She always said. “being very limber also really helps.” Not only that, but she was also able to spot incredibly small details from meters away. And even though Edric always tried to deny it, Emira was the leader of the two when they worked together.

Edric meanwhile was really good at causing distractions. Turned out that the boy was way smarter then he looked and was able to strategically plant all kind of distractions. From a small sound, enough to distract a guard and knock him or her unconscious, to some of the loudest explosions you have ever heard. which were made by bombs he had made himself. Many say that it’s not that hard, but Ed always claimed that there was a certain ‘finesse’ to it. ”If you don’t do it right, you can easily get caught.” He would always say. “You need to know with what, where and when you need to cause it.” he didn’t look at the small things, but at the bigger picture.

The two of them were practically undefeatable when they worked together. They had managed to infiltrate some heavily guarded facilities, housing multiple dozens upon dozens of guards. They were able to get in and out, completely unnoticed

But even though the two were an amazing team, they also liked to work separately. Both of them had a specific time which they preferred. Emira preferred to work in daytime, while Edric liked the dark. This was also one of the reasons of why their symbols were a mouse and a bat.

But even if it was the truth, it didn’t mean that it wasn’t annoying when they started talking about how good they were.

“From the information we had received they seemed to be about some secret projects. We were also there to retrieve some of our own files, which were stolen recently. Lucky it wasn’t anything that important and it was encrypted. They were kept there so the researchers could decode it.” Ed continued.

“They probably thought that they were some secret attack plans or something. Can you imagine their disappointment, had they found out that they were just a bunch of boring economical papers.” Em said with a grin.

Bump scoffed. “It would, indeed, not have been a problem, if the papers didn’t mention some of our contacts in Bonesborough, like suppliers of food, building materials, and certain potion ingredients. Which could get them arrested, interrogated, or worse.”

Amity cocked an eyebrow. “Why are their actual names in there? Why not codenames?”

“Because, if we would give everyone codenames, we need a damn list to keep track.” Eda explained. “Besides, they didn’t want one. They thought that if they were caught, they didn’t want to hide behind some fake name. They instead then wanted to go down with honor.” She shook her head. “The prideful bastards.”

The green haired witch opened her mouth to react, but no words came out. She was pretty much speechless. She admired the bravery of the towns people, but also thought that they were extremely dumb at the same time.

Edric then let out a cough, turning everybody’s attention back towards them. “Can my sister and I please continue the story?!” Eda gave a nod. “Good.” He then cleared his throat and continued where his sister had left of. “So yeah, we went off to secure some highly sensitive information. And after about three days of travelling and looking around, we managed to locate it.”

_Flashback:_

_Before them lay the lab, it’s massive size threw shadows over its surroundings. about a hundred guards were walking around the seven meter tall force field wall surrounding the valuable building. Everywhere you looked, there was a sweltering desert._

_But they didn’t even flinch. They had seen worse._

_“You ready?” Emira asked, wearing her darkest cloak while wielding two enchanted obsidian knives. A determined fire burning in her eyes._

_“Ready?” Edric asked as he drew his battle axe. “I was born ready sis.” They then stormed towards the fortress._

“HOLD IT!”

The twins looked at their younger sister. “What’s wrong Mittens?”

Amity huffed. “You two are literally making this stuff up! There was no desert, and the lab wasn’t that big. To not even mention that we don’t even have a way to obtain obsidian, let stand being able to make weapons from it. And Edric, you wouldn’t be able to wield an axe even if your life depended on it.” she then held up her hand. “And don’t try arguing with me. I was there when the two of you got your mission.”

Emira huffed. “Buzzkill. We’re just trying to make it more interesting.”

“Yeah Mittens. You’re just being a killjoy.”

“This isn’t the moment for jokes, you two.” Eda spoke. “And yes, I know that sounds weird coming from me, but I’m serious.”

The twins sighed. “Fine.”

_The real flashback:_

_The lab laid in front of them. It was definitely bigger than most, even if there were barely any. But even despite it’s big size, the trees of the Marrow Woods were able to hide it really good. Probably because it camouflaged with the white trees surrounding it._

_It was guarded with a brick wall of about three and a half meters high, and guard patrolled at strict intervals. There were about a few dozen of them._

“There, better?!” the older sister called out.

“way better.” Amity replied innocently.

“You’re still a killjoy.” The older brother muttered.

_Two pair of mischievous eyes watched it all like hawks._

_“What do you think?” Emira asked from her position in a tree. “hopeless cause or a slight challenge?”_

_“meh.” Edric reacted. “A little bit of both. I mean, it’s still a big deal and all, but I don’t expect too much from it. it’s not as fun as infiltrating an army camp. This’ll be easy.” He said with a smirk. They started heading deeper into the woods, preventing them from being spotted easily._

_Emira grinned. “yeah, that was pretty fun. I still remember the commander practically freaking out when he discovered that there were spies in their midst. He called it out to the entire camp, but somehow didn’t notice us sneaking off, planting fake evidence.” She let out a small laugh. “aah, good times.”_

_Her brother nodded. “he even imprisoned multiple innocent recruits because of us. Who we then freed and started a ruckus with. The moment it was over, we had already escaped with the needed information. A few days later, we destroyed the camp with the others.”_

_“I still remember them saying: “how did you get around our defenses?”. And then we stepped to the front, and the shock on their faces was priceless.” She snickered. “but seriously though, no matter how easy it looks, we should wait till night time and then strike.” Edric agreed._

_For the next few hours they spend talking about all kinds of things, from how they can annoy the guards, to new ways how to annoy Amity. They recalled some of their favorite moments of the last years since they joined the rebellion. They both knew, that it wasn’t always rainbows and sunshine. But when it was, it was a party._

_Before they knew it, the sun had gone down. Edric stood up from his spot and stretched his back. “you ready?” he asked his sister._

_“yep.” She said as she stood up as well. “Let’s get this over with. I want to leave this place as fast as possible. It has always creeped me out.”_

_Ed raised an eyebrow. “why is that? I really like it here.” he said as he looked around. “Especially the color of the trees. The wood has such a nice color of white.”_

_Em frowned. “you do realize that it’s white because the trees aren’t made from actual wood, right?”_

_“what?” he looked at her, bewildered. “what is it then?”_

_She threw him a deadpanned look. “Ed, its called the Marrow Woods.”_

_“So, why does that matter?”_

_“it matters because the trees are made of bone marrow. You know, the stuff that your bones are made out of. But not only the trees. The critters which live here are also mostly just skeletons.”_

_The male slightly paled. “You’re kidding? Right?”_

_“Heh,” his sister responded. “I wish I was.” She said as she started making her way to their destination. Gulping, Ed quicky followed her._

_“how do you know these kinds of things?” he asked._

_“because, dear brother of mine, I do at least some bit of research before every mission. But even besides that, I’ve already been here.”_

_He raised an eyebrow. “When?”_

_“you remember when you got send out to attack a convoy together with Luz and Gus?”_

_“yeah.”_

_“well, the same day, I got a mission which involved escorting a group of people who had managed to escape the guards and presumably got lost here. And let me tell ya, I thought that it would be a peaceful mission. But that quickly changed as we suddenly had to fight of a bunch of skeleton beasts. And it didn’t get much better once it had turned nighttime. The trees started giving of a weird glow in the moon light, and the animal seemed to get more active in the dark. We barely managed to get away.”_

_“yikes. Now I understand why you don’t want to stay here. well, that, and that the trees are technically made out of, you know, bones.”_

_“Yep, this place isn’t the best. But it does serve a good purpose though.” She then turned towards her brother. “what do you think prosthetic limbs are made from?”_

_Edric shrugged. “makes sense I guess.”_

_Emira nodded, but then held out her arm, stopping her brother from going any further. “Hold it.” she whispered. “We’re here.” they quickly hid in a bush._

_Even in the dark, the building stood out. it’s main difference now was that most of the light were of and more guards seemed to be patrolling the perimeter. There were a few stationary light spells floating around, lighting up the place slightly. Meanwhile the windows of the lab were completely dark. But sometimes you could see a small dot of light pas, presumably a guard._

_Despite the increased amount of guards, Edric smirked. “Like that is going to help them. Even with bigger numbers, they won’t be able to do anything.” He was about to walk out of their hiding spot, when he was suddenly pulled back by his sister. “hey!”_

_“ssssh.” Emira whispered. “It’s not that easy. Look at their eyes.”_

_Her twin cocked an eyebrow, but still did what he was told._

_At first he didn’t notice anything off. but then he saw a slight glow in the eyeholes of the mask. “Night vision enchantments.” He muttered. “should’ve seen that coming.” He then turned back towards Em. “what would I do without you sis?”_

_“you would get caught by the guards, apparently. And here I thought that you were at your best at night.” She teased. “But seriously, we need to be careful here. if one of them spots us, we’re done for.”_

_“Got it. I’ll take a look around.” He then stood up and started to run around the perimeter. After a few minutes he cam back. “okay. I saw to entrances. A main one and a small back door. The problem is though, they are guarded. And if we try to take them out, the patrolling guards will see them missing the moment they pas by. Every guard patrolling is b]put in a group of three, so we can’t take those out as well._

_So we can’t go through, and we can’t steal some outfits. And seeing that making a tunnel would take way to much time, we need to go over it.” he explained. “luckily for us, I have my grappling hook with me.” He said as he pulled out said object._

_“What I noticed, is that after each third guard, there is a gap. It’s relatively small, but it should give us just enough time to run to the wall and start climbing before the next one comes around the corner. The thing is though, we can’t waste a single second. If we do, we’ll be caught and we’re gonna have to run.”_

_Emira nodded in understanding. “just tell me when.”_

_The two sat there in silence for a few more seconds, until Edric suddenly whispered: “now!”_

_The twins quickly jumped up from their spots and started booking it for the wall as silently as possible. Everything seemed to be going well so far. But the moment they reached it, that feeling was crushed as footsteps could already be heard approaching._

_“Quick, quick, quick!” Emira whisper shouted._

_“yeah, I’m working as fast as I can.” He whispered back as he threw his grappling hook over the wall. When he felt the hook lodging itself in a crack, he gave a slight pull to see if it was safe. It didn’t even budge in the slightest._

_“ready.” He said signaled his twin as he started climbing. Emira meanwhile had started to slightly sweat, as the footsteps got closer and closer with each second._

_“can you move any faster please? We don’t have all the time in the world, you know!”_

_“I’m trying okay!” He said as he reached the top. “okay, your turn.”_

_“finally.” She said, maybe a bit too loud._

_Their eyes widened as the approaching guard called out: “Hey! Anyone there!?”_

_‘shit, shit, shit.’ She thought as she quickly grabbed the rope and started climbing. “Ed! A little help here?!” her brother nodded as he started pulling at the rope, helping her up._

_“If you’re there, come out no or suffer the consequences!” he was almost there._

_She was just a few steps away, and things were looking better. But that was the moment he rounded the corner. He started looking around. “I swear I heard something.” he muttered. He then heard a sound from above him and quickly looked up._

_Nothing._

_“I’m telling you. If this is another prank-“”Oy, Steve! Get a move on man!” the guard behind Steve called out._

_“Sorry Dave. Thought I heard something, but there’s nothing there.”_

_“Probably the wind or something. Now get moving, we’re an a tight schedule.” At that, the two started moving again._

_On top of the wall, the twins let out a sigh of relieve. Just before the guard had looked up, Edric had managed to pull Emira up next to him, and they had managed to hide from view._

_“this’ll be easy, you said.” Em huffed. “we almost got caught before we even got in. so yeah, it’s going great.” She said full of sarcasm._

_“yep. This isn’t our best start. But at least we’re in.” he looked towards the big building behind them. “Now we just need to find a way inside the building itself. Which should be doable.”_

_Emira sighed. “you said the same thing about us getting over the wall. And look how that went.”_

_“okay, I may have underestimated them, but believe me. We should be able to do this no problem. I mean, look at the surroundings. It big and pretty open, and there’s enough stuff to hide behind. And there are barely any guards.”_

_Edric wasn’t wrong. The place was indeed fairly big and had a bunch of crates and barrels just standing around. And there were indeed maybe only about twenty guards walking around, which was pretty much a walk in the park for them. This brought a small grin to the girl’s face. “And I think I see our way in.” she said as she gave the place a look over._

_She then pointed towards one of the walls. “If you look over there, you can see multiple boxes stacked on top of each other. If we climb that we should be able to jump onto smaller building next to the main one. From there we can throw the hook and climb up the walls and go through one of the windows after we force it open.”_

_Her twin grinned. “And this is why you make our plans sis.”_

_the two took a quick glance to see if anyone was near. Seeing no one around, Edric let down a rope after hooking it into the wall and they started their descend. The moment their feet touched the ground, the brother retrieved his hook and they started running._

_Everything seemed to be going well. Sure, they had to hide behind some barrels and crates to avoid being seen, but they still managed to reach their goal in no time. Looking up, they saw that the boxes were way bigger then they had originally thought. “mind giving me a little boost?” Emira asked._

_“sure.” Her brother responded. With his help, she was able to climb on top of it and then helped her brother get up as well. They repeated this a few times until they reached the absolute top. From there they jumped onto the roof next to them. “step one, complete.” Ed spoke. “now for step 2.” He said as he got his hook ready._

_“how about that one? It’s at a good height and if we need to make a great escape we can use it without too much trouble. Plus, it has a big enough exterior windowsill for us to sit down on.” Em pointed out._

_“true, but let’s hope that we won’t have to run, seeing that I’d rather not jump from four stories high.” He started twirling his tool and then let it go, sending it flying through the air._

_The hook hit the wall, but it didn’t stick. All it did was make a metal clang and fall downwards. The twins winced. There was no way that nobody heard that. And indeed, a guard was standing right underneath their building. At first they thought that they were absolutely screwed, until the falling metal hook hit him in the head, knocking him out in the process. Em raised an eyebrow. “wow, talk about an coincidence.”_

_“maybe we have that kind of luck now. But I don’t think that we’ll be as lucky next time.” Ed said as he readied his grappling hook for another throw. “and now we need to hurry up, seeing that we now have a body which can be found.”_

_He threw it again. Sadly, he got the same result. “you’ve got to be kidding me!” he spoke as the hook fell down again._

_“come on bro. hurry up!”_

_“yeah, I’m trying. But the damn thing doesn’t want to get stuck.” He grumbled. He quickly got it ready for a third attempt. “third time’s the charm.” He said as he threw it. the two watched it fly through the air, sailing majestic._

_it didn’t work._

_Both of them groaned._

_Not wanting to waste any more time, Emira grabbed the hook and rope from her brothers hands. “Let me try.” She quickly started twirling it and launched it through the air._

_The moment it hit the wall, the hook stuck itself._

_Edric’s jaw almost hit the floor. “But…but how?”_

_His sister shrugged. “Natural talent I guess.” She then tightened her grip on the rope. “now come on, we’ve got work to do.”_

_Edric nodded and took hold of the rope as well._

_“on three.” The day spy spoke._

_“One.”_

_“Two.”_

_“Three!”_

_The two swung towards the building, legs outstretch to cushion the impact. They saw the wall rushing towards them and they both thought the same. ‘oh crud.’_

_The moment their shoes hit the wall, a slight feeling of pain shot through their bodies. “it may become easier, but not less painful.” Edric hissed. Emira nodded in confirmation, while biting her bottom lip._

_When the two had recovered, they started climbing. And in about a minute, they reached the window. “So, got any ideas sis? Instead of, you know, smashing it?” Edric asked as they sat down on the windowsill._

_“a few actually.” She responded. “but looking at the window, they don’t seem necessary.”_

_Edric cocked an eyebrow. “why?”_

_“because, my dear brother.” She then lifted the window up. “it’s already open.” She quickly climbed through. Edric frowned in confused._

_“who the hell leaves open a window like that?” he said as he collected his rope. But as he climbed in, he saw a small sign. “you know what, never mind.”_

_Emira threw him a weird look as he pointed to the sign. “Remember to open the windows when leaving the building for the night on the third, fourth and fifth floor. Fresh air is needed. Guards shall lock them again after eleven at night.” She looked at her watch. “Right now, it’s just passed eleven pm. They probably forgot to lock it.” the female witch shrugged. “Luck is on our side apparently.”_

_The two walked deeper into the building. Everything was dark, and they could barely see their own hands in front of them. Silence surrounded them to such a degree that you could hear a pin drop. Edric quickly cast a light spell. Turns out that not only the outside walls were bone white, but the inside ones as well. A few doors could be seen down the hall._

_“Are you nuts?!” Emira exclaimed. “Do you want them to know we’re here?!”_

_“Hey. without it, we won‘t be able to see anything. And the guards outside will think that its one of them walking around. And if we come across any guard ourselves, we’ll either dim the light so they won’t notice us or we just take them out.” he explained. “trust me. I’ve done this tons of times.”_

_She couldn’t really fight that. “fine. Lead the way.”_

_The two started making their way through the different hallways, not really knowing where they were going. They wandered around for a few minutes like this, until they heard footsteps approaching. “quick! Put away the orb!” Em whisper shouted. The male witch quickly did what he was told, as they hid in the shadows._

_Around a corner further down the hall, came a guard holding his own light orb. The twins held their breath as the guard approached._

_“what do we do?” Emira asked._

_At first, Edric had no idea. They could run, but that would do more harm then good, seeing that the guard would absolutely see them. They could knock him out and hide the body, but that wouldn’t actually help._

_Then it clicked. He turned towards his sister. “follow my lead.” She looked at him questioningly, but nodded. With that confirmation, Edric started heading over towards the guard. He could hear his sister stutter at his actions but she still followed him._

_If they continued like this, the guard would definitely see them no matter what. But the male witch had a plan._

_From his pocket, he grabbed a small pebble. He then chucked it across the room. It flew past the guard and hit one of the walls, making a soft sound. But in these silent halls, it was the equivalent of an explosion. “WHO’S THERE!?” the guard shouted as he spun around. “huh?” he reacted as he saw no one there. “what was-“ before he could finish the sentence, he got hit in the back of the head, knocking him out._

_When the body hit the ground, Edric grabbed him and dragged him towards one of the rooms. “hey sis, could you maybe open the door for me?”_

_Emira gave him a confused look. “uhm, sure.” She said as she did what was asked. Her brother quickly dragged the body inside. “soooo, are we just going to leave it here? or what?”_

_“nah. “I’ve got a better idea.” He said._

_As he woke up, he heard muttering. it was faint and he couldn’t make out what was said. it sounded like multiple people._

_“how about we try something else?”_

_“AAAAAAAH!” the guard shouted as he was shocked. As the shocks stopped, heard one of the voices say:_

_“see. It worked.” The man looked up and saw two shadowy people standing in front of him. a faint light orb floated in front of him._

_“who are you?”_

_One of them stepped into the faint light, revealing it to be a young adult male with dark green hair and a mischievous smile. “we’ll be asking the questions here.”_

_The guard huffed. “like you’ll get anything out of me.”_

_Ed raised an eyebrow. “oooh. A feisty one, aren’t you?” he then turned towards his sister. “hey Em, what do you think? Will he keep his word?”_

_She stepped into the light as well, revealing herself to the guard. “Nah. Not a chance.” She wore the same smile as her brother._

_“wait.” The guard called out. “I recognize you two! You’re part of that rebel group in Bonesborough!”_

_Emira mock gasped. “you hear that Ed?! We’re famous!”_

_“If you think that you can break me, you’re wrong! I have been through the entire training program, so you won’t be able to get to me!”_

_Edric chuckled darkly. “Oh, believe me.” He then drew a magic circle right in front of the guards face. “we will.”_

_A few minutes later._

_“so, we need to take the second to the left, then go right and we should be able to find it from there?” all he got was a muttered response. “thanks.” Edric finished up the interrogation with casting one last spell, whipping the guard’s mind from them ever being there._

_As they laid him down back in his original place in the hallway, making it seem like he had just dozed off, they started making their way towards their new main objective, the main laboratory._

_“I still can’t actually believe that it was that easy.” Emira said._

_“I know right.” Her brother reacted. “all I had to do was put him in a dream state and make him believe that it was reality. All we had to do was alter the dream in such a way that he would tell the people in that dream were all the information was kept.” He shrugged. “easy.”_

_Em laughed. “good thing that we had Eda as a teacher.”_

_As the two continued on heir way, they talked about some of the things they had done in the dream._

_“I just have a hard time understanding why you had that lama dance around while wearing a tuxedo.” The female twin spoke._

_“I just wanted to see his reaction, which wasn’t at all what I expected.” Ed explained. “I don’t know why he stayed calm like that. I just…what?” he then looked at his sister. “but you’re not allowed to judge, seeing the trick that you pulled.”_

_“hey! I just wanted to see how he would react if he would ever encounter that.”_

_Edric gave him a deadpanned look. “when, in the world, is he ever going to encounter a giant hairy eagle, kidnapping his wife. Forcing him on a quest to safe her. To only find out that she has fallen in love with the damn thing! Heck! I don’t think the man even has a wife in real life!”_

_He got a shrug in response. “I was just curious.” She then raised an eyebrow. “and how do you know that for certain?”_

_“it’s against the rules of the guard.” His sister still looked at him like he had grown a second head. “In the rules of the Emperor’s guard, it says: when joining the guard, thou shall not be married or get married in the first ten years of service.”_

_“how do you even know that?” the female witch asked. “also. ‘thou’? really?”_

_“yes really. They really like their old use of words apparently. And to answer you’re other question,” Her brother sighed. “One time I was bored and the smaller version of the guard’s rulebook was laying on the table. so I went to see if they had any funny rules.” he snickered. “and oh boy, did I find some.”_

_Emira grinned. “ooooh, like what?”_

_“for example, one of the rules is literally that if you’re sick, and it could prevent work, you need to stop it.”_

_His sibling cocked her head. “stop what? Working?”_

_“nope. It says stop being sick.” He snickered as Emira snorted. “There was another one which said that if-….. Hold up.” He stopped dead in his tracks. “I think we’re here.”_

_In front of them was a big pair of red double doors._

_Emira cocked her head. “what makes you say that?”_

_“because it literally says main Lab, entrance one above the door.” He said as he lifted his light orb._

_“huh. Would you look at that.” She then turned towards her brother. “shall we?”_

_“oh, we shall.” He said as he opened the doors for her. “ladies first.”_

_Em snickered. “why thank you. you’re such a gentleman.” They both laughed._

_But that soon stopped as they saw the room before them. It was pitch black, but they quickly cast a bunch more light orbs and send them into the room._

_“woooooow.” They said in tandem._

_The place was massive. It alone was about four stories high, with them standing on the highest point, giving them an excellent view. Because of their spells, they were able to see the pearl white walls. Each floor was easily as big as a grudgby field. Each floor had multiple tables and filing cabinets standing around, probably containing a bunch of research filles. If they had to guess, there were probably about eighty of them in the entire room._

_“Holly damn.” Edric muttered. “this is a Titan damn goldmine!”_

_“I know, right.” Emira said as she walked further into the room. “we’re gonna need hours to go through all this.” she then cracked her knuckles. “might as well get to work.”_

_The two quickly ran to opposite sides of the room, and started to go through the filling cabinets. The moment Emira reached her tenth, she called out. “did you find anything yet?”_

_“no. all there is right here is stuff we already know. heck, the entire Isles knows.” He called out. “these are projects which have been a public thing for multiple years now. Some of these are even from before the rebellion was even a thing.”_

_She frowned. “why would they keep that, if it has already been made pubic years ago? Maybe they just archived it just in case?”_

_“probably.” Came the response from the other side of the room. “we should keep looking.”_

_“yeah. So far we’re not even done with our first floor. We’ll find the right documents soon. I’m sure.” She said with confidence._

_That quickly faded as they continued on their search. The more they looked at the filles, the less hope they had. Some of the documents were from really old projects which had long been known by practically the entire Isles. they quickly moved to the next floor, but that wasn’t much better._

_Sure, the plans were more recent, but still outdated. Most were known by the public, and some of them were not. But those were about some projects which were not worth their time. Most of it was about economics and political stuff. The female witch heard her brother groan from his side of the room._

_“this is_ so _boring!”_

_She sighed. “I know, but we have to keep going.” She responded. As they continued, they still found absolutely nothing. Most of these once were political and economical experiments. Most of the cabinets were also empty. The third floor was a failure._

_As they moved downwards towards the second floor, they noticed that this one looked more organized then the once before. there was also a small bunch of equipment standing around. From potion readers, to holographic data boards._

_“well, this looks better.” Edric commented. His sister nodded. They quickly dove back into the filles._

_Emira cocked an eyebrow as she read the first one. ‘plant warriors. Version 5?’ she opened it._

_it seemed like they tried to improve the process when you make plant warriors. They wanted to make them stronger and faster. Apparently that didn’t go well, as the report says that the plants attacked their creators and almost killed them._

_‘yikes.’ She thought. ‘that’s one way to almost come to your end.’ As she continued to look through the filles, she noticed that all of them were failed experiments. They were stopped because they were either to dangerous or everything went wrong when testing. “found anything?” she called out to her brother._

_“if you mean anything other than lab incidents and stopped projects, then no.”_

_She sighed. “I think we should move to the last one.” She exclaimed. “I have a feeling the rest won’t be much better.”_

_“true.” Edric called back._

_Emira dropped the papers she was holding and started making her way back towards her brother. The two quickly met up again and walked down the stairs towards the last floor. They noticed that this one was different. Mostly the tables. They looked more expensive and there was a lot more equipment._

_They were all practically the same, except the once in the back of the room. They looked more advanced than any they have seen so far. “wanna check it out?” Edric asked._

_“do you even need to ask?” the two walked towards it. as they approached, they noticed that it had what seemed to be a touchscreen and a bunch of buttons._

_Ed’s eyes widened as he saw a big red one. “ooooooh! Big red button!” he was about to touch it, but was hit on the hand by his sister._

_“don’t. we don’t know what that’ll do.”_

_“but,” he whimpered. “big red button.”_

_“No!” she called out again. She then groaned. “why do you still act like a child sometimes?” she said as she covered her face with her hands._

_He shrugged in response. “because it’s fun.”_

_Em let out a sigh and started looking over the control panel. “this thing is way more advanced than anything here. It even looks like some of it is based on human technology.” She said as she looked at the touchpad. “how in the heck did he figure this out?”_

_“maybe some scientists figured it out? I mean, it’s kind of their job, isn’t it?” the male witch suggested._

_“possible, but I’m still suspicious about it.” she started tapping the screen, to see what it had in store for them. She then saw a file called documents. “hey Ed! I think I found what we were looking for.”_

_The witch in question looked over her shoulder and looked at the screen himself. “oooh. Open it.” he said with childish glee._

_Emira shook her head. “oh calm down, will ya? Sheesh. You’re like a child in a candy store.”_

_Ed put his hands on his hips. “and what’s wrong with that?”_

_Em snickered as she opened the file. “Nothing. Nothing. Maybe you can look for our stolen papers, then I can continue with these.” Her brother nodded, gave a mock salute, and walked off. She then looked at the holographic screen which had appeared in front of her face. As she read the titles, she noticed dates standing beneath them. ‘probably the last time that they were opened.’ She thought._

_She then saw one which had been opened not even two weeks ago. It was called: project X2. As she tapped on it to view its contents, the screen got slightly larger and a recording started playing._

_It seemed to be recorded in some kind of office. It showed an older looking man wearing a lab coat. He had pale skin, brown hair with gray streaks and black glasses. “the name is doctor Esigan, leader of project X2. Day 46. Time, 10:38. The test subject has completely gone insane. They started screaming in what sounded like pain. Yesterday when we left he was totally fine. His counterpart however has not shown any negative effects like him yet, but that could be because she was injected later then him._

_I tried to talk to subject one, but he was unable to give me an actual response in the beginning. But last time I checked on him, he was calming down and soon I might be able to talk to him about what is going on.” The man sighed. He seemed to be struggling to keep talking. “I also talked with subject two. She says she hasn’t had any kind of negative effects on her yet, but she’s very afraid that it will happen to her as well. I asked her if she noticed anything about subject one. She told me that it happened somewhere in the middle of the night. She was sleeping, and then number one suddenly started screaming. she wanted to check up on him, but when she saw in what kind of a state he was in, she crawled into a dark corner and hid until we arrived. We don’t really know if it’s just a phase, but we hope it’s just a coincidence and that we can mo-“_

_“DOCTOR!”_

_A younger women came running into view. She was breathing heavily, indicating that she had ran. “What is it Trisha? I’m busy with the morning logbook.”_

_“It’s,” the assistant said as she regained her breath. “It’s number two.”_

_The man gulped, worry evident in his eyes. “what about her?”_

_“She…. She just went unstable. Just like number one earlier.”_

_Em gasped, and she saw the doctor turn as white as a sheet._

_“go back immediately, I’ll round this of and will arrive as fast as I can.” The assistant nodded and ran back towards where she came from. “I’m sorry to cut this short, but they need me.” That was the moment he cut the feed._

_Emiras’ eyes were wide like diner plates. “holy mother of the Titan. What the heck happened there?” she quickly swiped away the video, and took another look at the file. There were two more recordings. The next one was from the same date as the one she just watched. The last one was a few days later. She quickly clicked on the next video._

_When it was done loading, it showed the same man, in the same place._

_“the name is doctor Esigan, leader of project X2.” He sighed. “Day 46. Time, 23:46. If you have seen my morning report, you know what crisis has occurred this morning. This morning, we found out that subject one had gone partly insane. He was screaming and shouting like a wild animal. After some hours, he had started to calm down a bit. but right as we thought that it was over, subject two also started showing symptoms of insanity. She quickly lost herself as well. It took us multiple hours to get both of them to calm down completely. Right as I speak, the two are asleep. Everyone else already left the facility, but I’m still here. watching over them. I managed to get some information from them. The moment that they seemed to lose it, it felt like they weren’t themselves. Like they were savage animals and all they could feel was anger and frustration. They were trapped in their own bodies, unable to do anything. I would stay with them if I could, but” He let out a huff. “I have been instructed by the guards to leave the building before midnight. I told them I had to do my second report and as soon as I finish this, I have to leave. All I can do, is hope that they will get through the night alright.” He gulped, and Emira could see tears starting to form. “I tried to grind the project to a halt, not wanting to see them suffer, but it went unheard. And I won’t be able to construct and antidote on my own. I just pray to the Titan that they won’t end up like the others. Everybody who went before them died because it was putting way to much strain on their bodies. Some died of exhaustion, other of bodily failure. Sure, they have the highest chance of survival so far, but still.” He let out a small sniff. “So please, almighty Titan. Spare them from that faith.” He looked away from the camera. “I won’t be able to handle it otherwise.” Then a voice could be heard offscreen._

_“hey, doc! Are you done?!”_

_“almost!” he called back. He then turned back towards the recorder. “Please don’t tell anyone this, but I’m starting to doubt the Emperor’s methods. He already had some, why would he want more and improve it. he should know what kind of a risk that is.” He let out a sad sigh. “anyway, that was my second daily report. Doctor Esigan, out.”_

_The recording ended._

_She didn’t know what to say. For one of the rare moments in her life, she was speechless. She kept think back to what the doctor had said. people have suffered and died from this project, and now two others were suffering as well. If they could, they_ had _to find them._

_“hey Em.” That made her snap out of her thoughts, as she turned towards her brother. “I found the files we lost.” He spoke as he held up said documents. “Did you find anything interesting while I was gone? “_

_Emira didn’t react. She just looked at him, silently._

_Edric frowned. he knew that if she acted like this, something was up. “Em? Is something wrong? Are you okay?”_

_He expected her to deny it, as always. Imagine his surprise when she reacted with, “No.”_

_He quickly made his way towards her and grabbed her shoulders, worry evident in his eyes. “do you want to talk about it?” the female Blight sighed._

_“why would I tell you about it,” she turned back towards the holographic screen. “when I can show you.”_

_Her twin looked at her, confused. What in the world could make her act like this?_

_“you want to know what’s wrong?” Edric gave a feeble nod. “then take a look at this.” She started up the first recording._

_The next few moments were filled with the scientists voice and Edric’s gasps of shock. After the first video ended, he thought it was over. But then his sister loaded up the second one, and it only became worse._

_After the doctor had signed off, it was silent in the room. Neither of the twins spoke._

_This went on for about twenty more seconds, until the male twin broke the silence. “that….that, that’s fucked up.” He grabbed his head. “that’s just…… just absolutely awful. I don’t even want to think about how those two had to feel. I almost don’t know what to say.”_

_Emira nodded. “same. It’s just… they may have been in service of the Emperor, but they are still living beings. Like us.” She huffed in frustration. “And it’s just disgusting to hear what they are going through.” Her eyes then turned determined and she looked her brother in the eyes. “after this, we need to find out were they are, and free them from their prisons. I won’t allow them to live a life like this.” Her brother gave a determined nod._

_“agreed.” He then started looking somber again. “I wonder if they came out alright.”_

_“me too.” She then turned back towards the screen. “luckily for us, there is another video.”_

_Her brother then stepped up beside her. “nice. I really hope that they came out okay.”_

_Em shrugged as she tapped the recording and it started loading. “Eh, couldn’t have gotten much worse. The doctor did say that their chances were way higher.” They both hoped immensely that the two were alright._

_Those hopes were immediately crushed by the first sentence the professor spoke._

_“They’re gone.”_

_They saw the professor openly crying. “Day 49. Time, 11:- oh it doesn’t matter.” he sounded sad, broken. “It has been a few days since they started to lose control. Ever since, I tried to stay with them as long as possible. Everything seemed to be calming down. It looked like things were going to be all right. But when I arrived this morning, they were gone. There wasn’t a single trace of them. As I ran in, the others called the Emperor’s personal researchers._

_they told us that they weren’t able to figure out what happened, but the most logical thing to them seemed to be that the formula had become to much for their bodies to handle. They told us that the bodies that they had recovered from the failed tests, had rapidly combusted. And the further the development, the faster it went. They scanned for magic residue, and seeing the state that it was in, it confirmed their theory.”_

_Then the man practically seemed to break down. “their theory that my daughter and son are gone. Forever.” He then got an angry glare in his eyes. “I should have fought back more when they volunteered as test subjects for the new serum. But they were so determined to help me, help the Boiling Isles.” he slammed his fist in his desk. “why did it have to be them, damn it! they still had their entire lives in front of them. We would have had so much time left together if I had just stopped them.”_

_He started to cry. “and now, I won’t be able to see them ever again. I wasn’t able to tel them that I loved them one last time.” Tears were streaming down his face._

_After a few moments, he started to calm down. He wiped away his tears and looked back at the camera with bloodshot eyes. “the Emperor wants to continue the project, despite all of my protests. He demanded that I would immediately get back to work. So I don’t even get time to say goodbye to my children and give them a burial.”_

_He sighed. “I can’t go against him, even if I wanted to. I just wished that it could have gone differently.” He spoke some final words before he cut of the video. “this was doctor Esigan. End date: Day 49. Starting new cycle. Signing off.” Then the feed cut off._

_Both twins just stood there, paled. Emira covered her mouth with her hands as Edric stood still like a wooden pole. “they didn’t make it.” he said with a hushed tone. “they’re gone.”_

_Emira stood still as small tears started to form in her eyes. she thought about what the man had to go through. Seeing his children getting torn apart like that from the inside, to only meet an horrible end._

_The two were about to walk away from the console, until it lit up again on its own. “register yourself!” it spoke with a robotic voice. “Rebel or Coven?”_

_“uhm.” Ed looked confused. “what kind of question is that?”_

_“Rebel or Coven?” it repeated._

_Em shrugged as she answered. “maybe some sort of security system? A really dumb one, but still.” She then turned back towards the computer and replied. “Coven.”_

_It went silent, until it suddenly said: “lie detected. Start protocol.” It then started humming loudly, which made the twins tensed up._

_“what the heck is going on?” Ed called out. “is it going to send out an alarm or something?”_

_“I don’t know. But whatever it is, we can take it.” his twin said as she got ready to either run or fight._

_The loud humming continued for a few more seconds, until a small disc seemed to pop up out of the console, which was followed by a small piece of paper_

_“Registration: Accepted. Search complete.”_

_The two walked up to the desk. “what the-?” Em called out. she hesitant grabbed it, fearing slightly that it would trigger something or that it would somehow bite her hand off. But nothing happened and she took a closer look at the paper. “extreme classified information. Watch only in secure location.” She read out loud._

_“why would it give us this, even though it said that it knew we weren’t on their side?” her brother asked. “Is it a way to track us or something?”_

_The female Blight quicky cast a spell to check for any enchantments. “Nope. No tracing or tracking spells. It pure.” She frowned. “This has to be a prank right? They can’t be serious with this.” She said as she held up the tiny paper._

_Edric’s eyes widened. “Sis, look! It has something on the back.” He grabbed it from her hands and turned it around for her to see._

_He was right, because on the back of the note were a bunch of numbers._

_“C24 D2 F253 to F267?” she cocked an eyebrow. “what does that even mean?”_

_Edric got a twinkle in his eyes. “I think I know.”_

_“you do?” his sister asked, confused._

_“yep. Follow me.”_

_The two started making their way towards the filling cabinets. “you see,” the male sibling started explaining. “what I noticed when I was looking for our documents, was that every cabinet was numbered. Each drawer as well, and of course the filles are also numbered. And going of the letters in front of the numbers-“_

_Emira’s eyes widened in realization as she looked back at the note. “we need to be at Cabinet twenty-four, the second Drawer and need to look for files 253 to 267.” She smiled. “Ed, you’re a genius sometimes.” She then cocked her head. “but why? Why would they give us hints?”_

_Ed shrugged. “don’t know. but we’re about to find out.” he said as he come to a stop. In front of them stood cabinet number twenty-four. He quickly opened the second drawer from the top._

_“let’s see. 227, 235, 238, 249- Ah! Here we go!” he said as he pulled it out. “file number 253.” He opened it and started reading._

_Emira saw his mood go way down while he was doing that. “what is it?”_

_Her twin closed the file and looked her straight in the eyes. “this is about project X2.” He said as he lightly waved it around. “and I bet that the others are as well.” And as they looked through them, they found out that he was right._

_Every single one of them was about the X2 project. Some where just status reports on the different tests, others where about the test subjects themselves. But the remaining ones were the most interesting: they were about the actual development of the serum. It explained in full detail what they did to make it and improve it. it also talked about the resulting flaws of the formula._

_“we need to take them. Every single one.” Emira concluded. “I won’t allow them to go further with this.” Her brother nodded in agreement._

_As Edric gathered and sorted the files, Emira looked through the register talking about the ‘lab rats’._

_Something she found intriguing, was that the first ones were all about forty or thirty years old. Not particularly young. But then all the testers became young adults, all around the twenty or even younger. They had even tested it on a child, which turned out to be a grave mistake._

_As she went through the victims, she also saw that practically every single one of them had done it out of free will. None of them were forced prisoners or anything like that. They were all volunteers._

_The more pages she flipped, the sadder she got. ‘All of these people have died. All of them have probably suffered and then finally came to an horrible end.’ She growled. ‘It just makes me sick just reading about it.’ she then reached the last page, and her eyes widened._

_There they were, smiling at her with their probably last actually genuine grin._

_“Lisa and Leo Esigan. Twins. Deceased.” She whispered to herself._

_Edric looked up from his work. “did you say something sis?”_

_“they were twins Ed.” Seeing her brother giving her a confused look, she explained. “the last to testers, the kids from that doctor Esigan. They were twins, just like us! Heck, seeing their birthdate, they were our age when they…” she gulped. “passed away.”_

_The male Blights eyes widened as he walked over and took a look himself. “damn.” He said after a few seconds. He had wanted to say more, but couldn’t._

_Silence reigned for a m=few moments, then Edric returned to his work._

_The two sat there without speaking a word. Until,_

_“You’ve got to be kidding me!!”_

_Emira quickly turned towards her brother. “What?! What is it?!”_

_Her brother growled. “these fuckers apparently have hid a bunch of vails with the serum around the facility. In case someone managed to steal the formula. This way they wouldn’t lose their progress.”_

_Emira groaned. “but then stealing the files won’t do anything. And we don’t have time to go looking around the base for them!” she called out. “the rest of the guards will probably arrive in a few hours. And we are going to need way more then that to be able to find all of them.”_

_The two were starting to stress, until an idea popped up in Ed heads. “then we’ll just have to destroy every single one of them.”_

_His sister looked at him with a irritated deadpanned look. “you do realize that for us to be able to destroy them, we need to find them. Right?! And we already came to the conclusion that it wasn’t going to work.”_

_Edric smirked. “who said anything about searching for them when we can just take them all out in one fell swoop.”_

_“oh?” her eyes widened. “oh. Oh!”_

_The male twin nodded. “exactly. So what do you think about blasting this place sky-high?”_

_The other Blight smirked. “Let’s bring it.”_

_“okay. So let’s go over the plan one more time.”_

_Edric nodded. “we’ll both take one side. You the left and I’ll take the right. Our bags are full of magic bombs, set to go off at our command. We’ll spread the bombs through the entire building. And when the bag is empty, I run back here. we’ll meet up and then make our escape.”_

_Emira nodded in confirmation. “and the moment we are out of range, we make them blow. Blasting this entire complex into smithereens.”_

_They high-fived. “Go Blights!” the twins quickly ran to each other’s opposite direction._

_About twenty minutes later, Edric came running back in the lab, and saw that his sister was already waiting there. “you did that fast.” He commented._

_She shrugged tauntingly. “eh, I’m just that fast. It not my fault you’re a slowpoke.”_

_“hey, I’m not slow! The only reason why I’m later then you is because you’re slightly faster and that I actually thought about how I placed the explosives. While you probably just stuck them to random surfaces.”_

_Emira gasped mockingly. “I did no such thing. How dare you assume something like that!” she then saw his brothers gaze and she broke. “yeah, pretty much.” She said while rubbing the back of her neck._

_He sighed. “let’s just hope that those babies have enough firepower.”_

_Emira waved it off. “I’m sure they will. You made them, and then we enchanted them for more ‘umf’, so we should be fine.” She said with a confident tone._

_“if you say so.” Ed reacted. He then realized something. “by the way, what are we going to do about the guards?”_

_Em cocked her head. “what about them?”_

_“well, even though they are our enemies and all that, some of them are not that bad. and now we’re just going to blow it all up with them inside.” He explained. “kind of dark don’t you think?”_

_His sister nodded. “true. But I already got a plan for that.”_

_As she made her way over to the main desk, she called out. “grab the documents. If my pan works as I hope it does, then we need to get out of here as fast as possible.”_

_Edric frowned in confusion, but did what he was told._

_As she reached the desk, she grabbed a small microphone which she saw earlier and turned it on. “attention, everybody!” she called out with a panicked voice. “evacuated the grounds immediately! A dangerous mixture of chemicals has been found in the main lab, and it’s about to blow this entire base into nonexistence. Get out immediately!”_

_Just as she finished speaking, sirens could be heard going off, and emergency lights started flickering. She put back the microphone and clapped her hands together confidently. “And that. Is. How. You. do it.”_

_Edric whistled. “nicely done.” He then looked at their surroundings. “but we should probably start running now.” He said as he pointed towards the exit._

_The two stood still for a second until they took off. as they sprinted trough the halls at full speed, Edric noticed something. “hey. Our friend is gone as well.”_

_Indeed, the guard which they had interrogated was not there anymore where they had left him. “huh. Probably woke up and went on with his patrol.”_

_The Blights quickly reached the window through which they had entered._

_“men first.” Emira taunted._

_“why thank you my lady.” Edric said mockingly._

_As they climbed out, they looked downwards. “sooooo, how are we going to get out of here exactly?”_

_Em gave him a deadpanned look. “Ed, you have a rope, with a hook none the less.”_

_Said witch blushed in embarrassment. “oh yeah.” He quickly grabbed it from his belt and hooked it into the wall. After a few tugs as safety check, he gave a thumbs up. “we’re ready to go.” getting a confirmation nod from his sister, he grabbed the rope and quickly started to climb down._

_As soon as he was far enough away, Emira grabbed the rope as well and followed him downwards. On their way, they saw guards running to and fro. Some of them ran around like headless chickens and had to be redirected by their colleagues._

_As Edric touched the ground, he quickly got out of the way for his sister and looked around at the running guards. As soon as the other Blight was down, her brother asked. “now what?”_

_She pointed towards the wall. “we leave the exact way we came.” The male Blight nodded and they started running again._

_On they way, they had to dodge some of the guards. But they were all busy with fleeing the complex, so they weren’t see at all. The two managed to reach the wall in no time, and Ed threw his hook. After checking, he gave another thumbs up and was about to start climbing, but Emira stopped him._

_“nope. You went first earlier, now it’s my turn.” She said as she grabbed the rope form his hands and started climbing. Al Edric responded with was a shake with his head._

_In les then a minute they were both on top of the solid wall, and another minute later, they were on the other side of it._

_As they ran towards the forest, they saw all of the guards gather on a small hill, looking at the laboratory. Seeing this, they grinned at each other._

_“shall we?” “oh, we shall.”_

_The two snapped their fingers in tandem._

_At first nothing happened._

**_BOOOOM!!!_ **

****

_Then the building exploded in a glorious fireball, completely obliterating it. the twins high fived again._

_“Now THAT, is what I call an explosion.” Edric called out._

_“Heck yeah!” Emira cheered._

_As they saw the explosion lose it’s power, smoke started to rise and a big cloud of dust covered everything from sight. Having enjoyed the sight, they turned back towards each other._

_“you got the documents?” Em asked._

_Edric held them up. “yep. You got the little disc?”_

_She pulled it out of her pocket. “Yeah.”_

_Ed smiled. “great, lets head home.” He said as he walked deeper into the forest._

_Emira whined. “do we really have to go through there?”_

_“seeing that we had to leave our staffs at home for repairs and that this is the fastest way home, yes. We do.”_

_Emira groaned as she followed her brother._

_End Flashback._

“and on the way back, we saw Eda, who gave us a left for the rest of the way.” Edric said as he pointed towards the elder witch, who gave a nod.

“I told them that I had heard an explosion, and asked them if they were somehow involved. They pleaded guilty and told me a summary of what had happened.” The Owl Lady spoke.

“huh.” Bump spoke. “sounds like you two _did_ in fact have a reason of why you blew it all up.” He frowned. “but it was still risky. It was all over the news. Luckily for us, the guards had actually believed that it was a gone bad chemical reaction and so that’s what they told the news.” He let out a sigh. “you two were really lucky with this one.”

“luck had nothing to do with it. it was all skill.” Emira bragged, and her brother gave a nod. But that quickly weakened as they saw the deadpanned looks that everyone had. “okay.” She admitted. “also luck. But mostly skill.”

“those innocent people.” Willow spoke up. “unbelievable that they put them through that!”

“and that poor man.” Gus added. “I don’t even want to think about how he must be feeling. He was involuntarily responsible for the death of his children, and he’s forced the work further in the thing that killed them.” The rest all gave a nod in agreement.

“let’s hope that it was the only facility who knew about that research.” Luz said.

A dead silence fell over the group. What if it wasn’t? What if there were more places like that, which would just continue their work. So many more would suffer.

“do we actually know what kind of serum it actually was?” Amity asked.

“I think I’ll be able to answer that.” Bump said. ” I’ve taken a look through the files the twins delivered. It seems to be some kind of super soldier serum. It’s supposed to enhance the physical and magic strength of the user, permanently.” He frowned. “and seeing that its called X2 and not X, probably means that there is a version before this one.”

Emira nodded. “in the recording, the doctor _did_ say that the Emperor wanted it better, even though he has multiple already. So he already has super soldiers walking around.”

The human of the group frowned at that. ‘ _Could it be that…? Nah, why would they…. But then again-‘_

“hey Luz!” the human girl’s head shot up. Everybody was looking at her. “something on your mind kid?” Eda asked.

“well, kind of actually.” She spoke. She looked at the green haired witch next to her, who gave her a confused look. She then turned back to her mentor. “I may or may not have gone to town earlier today, and may or may not have gotten in a little tussle with some guards.” She admitted.

Eda groaned as she facepalmed. “and why doesn’t that surprise me?” as she removed her hands, she said. “okay, continue.”

Luz took a deep breath and continued with her story. “It wasn’t that big of a deal in the beginning. I was able to beat them blindfolded and with my arms and legs bound to my back.” She sighed. “then Rhodon decided to pop up.”

“Rhodon?” Emira asked. “you mean the guard the you and Mittens fought when you were teens, that Rhodon?”

“do you know any others then?” the human asked with a raised eyebrow.

The female twin rubbed her neck. “No. please continue.”

“right. So he came into view and I thought that it wasn’t all that bad. But I’m telling you, that gorilla is growing a brain. At some point he managed to trap me and surrounded me completely.” She smirked and made air quotations. “well, ‘trap me’. It was more like they thought they had me, and then I escaped. But it was way harder then normal. For some reason, he was able to withstand hits which would have seriously injured or even killed a normal person.”

Gus looked at her, skeptical. “are you sure you’re not overexaggerating?”

“maybe I would be.” Luz reasoned. “If it wasn’t so that I dropped him from five floors up, while also using force onto his body. Meaning that the impact was even harder. Any person would have had most of there bones break if they would not immediately die on impact. But he just stood back up like it was nothing.”

Eda raised an eyebrow. “so what you’re saying is that he is-“

“an result of the original X serum project? Yes exactly. I mean, its that only way it can be explained.” She said with a shrug.

“hmm” Bump thought. “we’ll have to look into that later. But right now, we’ve got other stuff to deal with.” He focused towards the twins. “I take it you two still have the disc?”

Emira held up into view with a proud smile. “have it right here.”

“can I see?” the Blight nodded as she passed it around so it would reach the former principal. After taking a closer look, Bump came to a conclusion. “As handy as this can be, we won’t be able to see what’s on it.”

“why not?” Edric asked.

“because we don’t have the right equipment for it. This is a holographic recording.” He put the disk down on the table. “and for us to be able to watch it, we need a holo-table.”

Practically everyone groaned. But they didn’t notice the soft glow coming from the disk. All except one.

“uhm, guys?”

“It’s always that thing that’s holding us back.” Gus frowned. “it’s not man power, its not materials. No! It’s always that Titan damn thing!” Willow put a hand on his shoulder.

“hey, we all know that your trying to find a way to get the construction plans. All you can do it your best.”

The glow slightly brightened. “Guys?”

“maybe. But still, we have been practically everywhere and still didn’t find anything. I just don’t get how that’s possible!” the Illusion witch called out.

Bump sighed. “but since we don’t have a method right now, we should lay it in the safe for prote-“

“HEY!”

Everybody turned towards the human of the group, all with raised eyebrows. “the disc is glowing!” she called out as she pointed towards it. the rest of the group saw what she meant.

“It hasn’t done that before.” Edric commented.

The group sat in silence for a moment, until Willow spoke up. “so, what are we going to do with it?”

Nobody reacted at first, then Luz said: “I’m going to touch it.” the rest looked at her like she had grown a second and third head.

“are you crazy?” the ex-principal called out.

“meh.” The human responded. “probably somewhat, yes.” She then turned towards the rest. “come on guys. What’s the worst that can happen?”

“the worst that can happen is that it either explodes and kills all of us, or it reveals our location to the Emperor.” Bump said with a deadpanned look.

“true. True.” She admitted. “but what id it doesn’t? what if it’s something meant for us to find? For it to help us? Emira and Edric both said that the computer was specifically looking for rebels.”

“yes, which could mean that it’s a trap.” The old man continued.

Edric then raised his hand. “I’m with Luz. We won’t know if we don’t try it.”

Willow turned to look at her friend. “sorry Luz, but I have to go with Bump on this one. As you know, normally I would agree with you in a heartbeat. But we’ve had too many close calls recently, we have to be careful.”

“I agree with Willow.” Gus said. “It’s too risky.”

Emira stood up from her seat. “Well I’m with Luz. We need to know what it going on with it. it could be essential.”

It was three against three. They all looked at Eda. “I’m not sure, to be honest. On one side, it could be dangerous. Just like Bump said. but on the other hand, like Luz and the twins said, it could result in something which we absolutely need.” She shrugged. “I’m half and half.”

They then all turned towards the last remaining witch.

Amity stayed calm, even though every single eye in the room was focused on her. or at least, on the outside. On the inside, she was freaking out. ‘ _what do I do, what do I do?! Both sides are right and wrong at the same time! I don’t want to be responsible for the destruction of the entire town or something like that. But what if this is a one time event? What if this is our only chance?’_

After few more seconds of mental debate, she got her final answer. She closed her eyes and said the magical words.

“do it.”

The eyes of Luz and the twins brightened, as Bump, Willow and Gus looked at her in shock. “I must have misheard you, Miss Blight. Because I thought I heard you say that you wanted to see what would happen?”

Amity shrugged. “pretty much, yeah. I mean, what if it’s our only chance? Besides even if we want to move it, we’re going to have to touch it in some way anyway. Be it either magical or physical. And if it’s really a bomb or something, it will explode either way.” She smirked. “besides, EM and Ed checked for track and trace spells and found none. And if it _is_ an explosive, we would have felt could feel the magical energy charge up if you focus on it. but there’s nothing.”

Eda looked at Bump. “she got ya there.”

The old man let out a sigh. “fine. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Luz nodded. Then she smiled at Amity, thanking her for her support. All the response she got was a slight blush and a small nod. She then reached for the disk. The moment her hand touched it, she pulled it back with a yelp.

“the damn thing stung me!” she called out as everyone gave her worried looks. Each of them took a closer look, and indeed, a small spike had come out of it. slightly red from a bit of the human’s blood. It quickly folded back in, and started softly humming.

Everybody tensed up, and for about a minute all that could be heard was the humming from the disc.

Then it let out a ping and proclaimed. “Identity: Luz Noceda. Safety confirmed.”

It then moved itself to the middle of the table and started vibrating. Everybody’s eyes widened as they quickly ducked for cover.

 _‘maybe this wasn’t a good idea after all.’_ Luz thought.

Then then disk went silent again. Everybody stayed hidden, just in case.

Until,

“Good day, dear Rebellion.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone.  
> soooo, the reason of why I'm updating the story today, even though I have had this chapter ready for a multitude of days now, is because today is my eightteenth birtday. this is a milestone for me becoming an offical adult.  
> sadly, not eventhing is going as planned as my father has been tested positive for Covid-19. *sigh* But what can you do?
> 
> but besides that, hope you all enjoyed this chapter. it's been the longest piece of text that i have writen, EVER. 
> 
> And I can tell you this: Stuff is about to really take off.
> 
> sadly I'm goign to be working on all of my other stories, especially my newest one. so this story may go a little while without being updated. and if you see anything about it being changed, but no new chpaters, that's me imroving the grammar and the writing of the ones before this.
> 
> Hope to see all of you next chapter.  
> Gr Elementalwriter


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